Body Bending
by Nate The Ape
Summary: Toph has always loved to fight, to have adventures, and to be the heroine. So when the Ellimist approaches her with an offer that will involve doing all three, how can she say no? And now the Yeerks will have their world rocked.. Takes place roughly in #45-54. Chap. 31 is up! If you read, please take a moment to review.
1. Chapter 1

**First of all, the disclaimers: Avatar belongs to Bryan, Mike, Nickelodeon and Viacom, while Animorphs is the property of Kathy Applegate and Scholastic books. I have no such claims to these worlds or characters.**

**Similar to Avatar as a cartoon series, Animorphs rates as one of the best, most exciting and intriguing book series I have ever had the pleasure of reading (Yes, even though Applegate did have some of the books written by other people.)**

**Like many fellow fans though, I was left both disappointed and bummed by the last final book in the series, including by what happened to a certain bad-ass female character that we'd come to love. I feel it goes without saying that things would very likely have gone a lot differently if she'd had backup on the ship, and recently I thought of the perfect animated character to help out with that...Thus, this crossover was conceived.**

**P.S. There are some refrences here to the sequel comic book for Avatar, The Promise by Dark Horse and Gene Yang. While I have not actually read it nor have plans to (based on what I've read/seen of it on the web, it's something I can take or leave) I have inserted references to it in this first chapter. **

It was a gorgeous evening on the outskirts of the great city of Yu Dao. Although she couldn't see the sun, Toph Bei Fong, founder and instructor of the first ever metalbending academy, could feel its luxurious warmth on her skin. She could smell the perfume of the blooming flowers and hear the sounds of the bees as they gathered nectar.

Coupled with her growing hunger, the temptation to go for an evening walk was just too strong to ignore. As she crossed the stone of her courtyard, the blind earthbender decided The Jade Sawfish would be a great place to have dinner tonight. Its menu offered all kinds of excellent meat and seafood dishes, many prepared in the wonderfully spicy Fire Nation manner to cater to the colonists.

The restaurant was also located about three and three-quarters great li away from her home and in a relatively open spot, meaning she would have plenty of time to enjoy her journey there.

Barefoot as always, Toph strode down the same path she'd taken to the restaurant several dozen times before. The sun felt great, and Toph lightly curved her lips in pleasure. She wondered how Katara and Aang were doing, if they were thinking seriously about marrying, or still content to just be boy/girlfriend.

Abruptly, the blind earthbender realized with a shock that she'd wandered off course while heading toward the restaurant. Way off course.

Somehow, she'd veered onto another footpath entirely and walked at least two great li into the farm fields surrounding the city without even realizing it. Obviously she must have zoned out.

Pulling with her earthbending, Toph caused two mounds of earth to appear under the soles of her feet and began to rapidly ride on them back to the main path, moving her legs in a skating motion.

Her little detour had needlessly wasted her time, and it filled her with embarrassment and bewilderment at once. Unlike Twinkletoes, utterly zoning out simply wasn't her style. The very idea that she'd allowed it to happen frustrated her.

After gliding along on the earthen mounds for a few minutes, Toph, to her complete astonishment, realized that the same thing had happened a second time. And instead of getting closer to her destination, she'd actually gone _deeper_ into the countryside!

"No freaking way," she said in slow bafflement, as an eerie chill gripped her. Was she becoming ill? Had something gone wrong with her brain, with her sense of perception?

Or...was it the work of some sort of powerful spirit?

_POWERFUL FOR SURE, BUT I AM NO SPIRIT, TOPH BEI FONG._

"Wwaaaaahhhh!" Toph yelped, uncharacteristically nearly jumping out of her skin as she whipped around, blind eyes darting wildly.

The voice that had addressed her came from everywhere, from all three dimensions. But it wasn't being transmitted through air. It filled her skull, like whenever a thought came to the earthbender, and resonated through her body. Each word felt like a soap bubble bursting, like a stone cracking, among her personal thoughts.

She drove the sole of her right foot hard against the packed dirt, sending a wave of bending outward in all directions, trying to discover the speaker's location.

But there was nothing to BE located!

Yes, it had to be a spirit addressing her.

"Where are you?" Toph demanded, her apprehension rapidly growing. "How do you know my name? And why are you here?"

_HOW ABOUT WE FIND SOMEWHERE MORE PRIVATE TO SPEAK FIRST?_

And in the next instant, the entire world dropped out from underneath Toph's feet. She found herself floating. It certainly wasn't in water, for there was no feeling of wetness or of coolness. But nor was it air, either. She could still breathe just fine, but her senses still told her she was suspended in a different sort of-something.

There was a gentle heat around her, soothing, delightful warmth that caressed her skin. It came from all directions, and in some way she couldn't quite pin down, Toph understood it was not sunlight.

At the realization that she was apart from solid ground, rendered truly blind and helpless without her seismic sense, panic knifed through the earthbender. Although it didn't seem like she was in danger of falling to her death at the moment, she wildly kicked and scrabbled, searching for anything solid at all.

_DO NOT BE SCARED TOPH BEI FONG. I SHALL GIVE YOU A SOLID SURFACE._

The nothingness below her feet just solidified then, to form a circle of sandstone about eight paces in diameter. It was as if the air was water, and it had just turned to ice.

"How-how did you just do that? What is going on here?" Toph asked shakily. Her feet were back on solid rock, a welcome little island in this ocean of nothingness, but her mind was reeling. And in the presence of such an incomprehensibly powerful and mysterious spirit, the very first one she'd ever had dealings with, her body was now quivering.

_THERE IS NO NEED TO COWER EARTHBENDER, _the voice soothingly assured her, _FOR I MEAN YOU NO HARM._ _I SHALL APPEAR NOW IN A FORM YOUR SENSES CAN GRASP AND YOUR MIND SHOULD BE COMFORTABLE WITH._

And then, Toph felt another presence join her on the disk of stone. It was as if someone had lightly leapt down out of a tree and landed just a couple paces away from her.

Cautiously going into one of her stances, Toph sent out a gentle wave of bending, not to be aggressive, but just to analyze.

The being had a similar physical form to hers. Two legs, two arms, a torso and head.

His body felt wizened, scrawny, like that of an old man. But the sheer force of energy she felt flowing from him, flowing into the stone itself, flowing into the whole universe, was far from vapid.

Toph had been around Aang at least twice when he'd gone into the Avatar state, and knew too well the gripping shock and terror of its savage, grim, uncontrollable power.

But the energy this spirit was giving off...well, this was at least ten times greater than any Avatar ever born could have mustered.

Fear of that power made her shy like an ostrich horse encountering a sulfurhead, and Toph backed to the edge of the stone circle, palms facing upward, fingers splayed as she uncertainly got ready to defend herself, tottering on her knees.

"It is all right, Miss Bei Fong," he spoke with an actual human voice. "You do not need to fear me."

His voice sounded nothing like the chilling, discordant bray Aang spoke with in the Avatar state. It was ancient and vast to be sure, but also soothing, kindly...grandfatherly.

At the same time, Toph felt a gentle throbbing in the stone underneath her, in the warmth surrounding her. It traveled through her ears and feet to act as a balm to her nerves. It filled the blind girl with an inexplicable contentment.

On a subconscious level it was intimately familiar, yet even as it caused much of the tension to drain from her muscles, Toph had no idea exactly why it was so soothing.

Then it struck her in a rush. She knew this throbbing better than anyone. Amazed, she told him, "You-are you seriously imitating my-my mom's..."

"Yes Toph," he confirmed. "I thought the feel of your mother's heartbeat would help put you at ease."

For a time she was silent, completely at a loss, dumbfounded in the extreme.

When she found her voice again, it came in an awed, atypically reverent sigh. "What _are_ you? Are you-are you a god?" she asked.

"I am neither spirit nor god," the being replied. "What I am is beyond even that, beyond your ability to understand. If I was in the mood, I could cause your entire world to vanish or explode, obliterate your entire race's ability to bend the elements, even the memory of bending, in an instant-but I am hardly that harsh or capricious in my actions."

"I can believe that. And yeah, you feel like a good person, from what I can tell. Anyway, you obviously know my name somehow," Toph went on as she walked back to the center. "What are _you _known by? Do you even have a name at all?"

"I am simply an Ellimist," the being replied. "That is as good a way as any to refer to me."

"Ellimist," Toph thoughtfully repeated, trying the word out on her tongue.

"So why did you bring me to-uh, here?" the earthbender indicated with a sweep of her arm. "I hardly think you're the type to interrupt someone's evening just to chitchat."

The Ellimist gave a good-natured laugh, and the universe laughed with "him." Growing serious, he said in that grandfatherly voice, "I am here to ask a favor of you, Toph Bei Fong."

The request was so ridiculous Toph couldn't help but chuckle.

"You're joking, right Mr Ellimist dude? Sure, I may be the greatest, most fantastic earthbender ever, but why would you, someone who pretty much claims they could make the entire Earth Kingdom disappear without breaking a sweat, who has to be to me like I am to a cicada-cricket, want me to do something for you? What could you possibly want or need from me?"

"Because we cannot directly interfere in such a blatant way," the Ellimist explained.

Toph regarded him skeptically. "Riiiggghhhttt."

"I know what you are thinking earthbender," he said idly, "but while it is true that I possess power that not even ten thousand mature Avatars would be able to approach, my omnipotence merely seems that way from your limited human perspective."

"Well, you sure seem powerful enough for my purposes. But why exactly can't you directly interfere? Is it like some sort of rule you'll be punished for breaking?"

"We have nothing to fear when it comes to _direct_ punishment," the Ellimist dismissively replied. "But yes, it is a rule that neither I nor my opponent may break in good faith, as part of our contest."

"Wait, did you just say opponent?" Toph interjected. "There's someone else who's just as powerful as you out there?" The imitation of Poppy's heartbeat had ceased now.

"Even more than I."

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that he's evil."

"To his very core," the Ellimist said grimly. "To be in his presence would likely tear your mind apart with fear, earthbender-and he takes great delight in such fear."

"Is he anything like...like Ozai was?"

"In too, too many ways, young earthbender. But even on the day of Sozin's Comet, the amount of King Ozai's savagery and lust to dominate when compared to this being, who calls himself Crayak, is like the difference between a paving stone and a mountain. His ideal universe is one ruled by terror, submission, agony and conflict, one where only the nastiest and the cruelest survive, where species and nations exterminate each other until only one supremely vicious race survives, which will in turn be controlled by him."

The very idea of it made Toph gasp in disbelieving horror. "Wow. You're saying _that's_ his goal in life? To make life meaner and to destroy itself! That-that's _**sick**_ Ellimist! It's like taking Ozai and making him a thousand times more screwed up in the head and hateful than he already was to begin with!"

"Even more than that," the Ellimist stated. "You see, Crayak desires the ability to control the very laws of space, time, and reality itself, to transform them to his own liking."

"Oh Tu Gong," Toph heard herself groan. "Ellimist, that's not right! Why are you even allowing something like him to exist? Don't tell me you're letting him get away with this!"

"How do you feel we should deal with him then, Miss Bei Fong?" he calmly asked.

"I don't know!" Toph snapped, flinging her hands into the "air." "Take his powers away, kick his butt until he slinks away like a beaten dog, or just do away with him!"

"We-Crayak and I-tried that last option once, long, long ago, so far back into the past you couldn't possibly comprehend it," the Ellimist said mournfully. "The results were neither pretty nor worth it for either of us."

"So, to keep such needless destruction and loss of knowledge of the universe from ever occurring again, we came to an agreement that we would oppose each other not through violence, but through cunning, by influencing events as part of a strategic game."

"Like Pai Sho," Toph replied. "Or Go."

"Exactly. We counter each other's moves, working to adjust the balance in our favor."

"Um, is my world part of this game, Ellimist?" Toph asked apprehensively, not really wanting to know the answer.

"No-at least not yet. Your world is located in a different part of the universe than the one where Crayak and I play our game."

Immensely relieved, Toph exhaled before asking, "Then why have you come to me in the first place if me and my world aren't in any danger from this nasty Crayak guy?"

"There is an extraordinary planet very similar to your own, earthbender, yet also different in many ways, which has been occupying a great deal of both our time and energy over the past few years. Like yours, this planet is home to human beings, who know it as Earth."

"You mean there's actually a planet with people just like us out there in the universe?" Toph exclaimed in wonder. "That is so awesome! And I like the idea that it's called Earth," she grinned.

"More or less," the Ellimist said. "But to answer your previous question, the humans of Earth have recently been in the process of being silently, stealthily captured and conquered by another intelligent race, born under the skies of another planet."

"So what are-or were-these things called?"

"Yeerks."

"Yeerks," Toph repeated thoughtfully, her lip corners twitching back in something resembling a gesture of disgust. The name meant nothing to her, and yet...well, there was something just inexplicably foul about it, a harsh, gravelly, spiteful utterance that offended her ears and tongue alike.

"For nearly all of that time," the Ellimist went on, "the only humans who knew of the Yeerks and fought against them were five young men and women, none of them older then the Waterbending siblings you came to know as friends while training the Avatar. Their struggle was long, bloody, lonely, tiring and testing, filled with as many defeats as victories, taking a terrible toll on their minds and souls alike."

"So, what happened?" Toph prodded. "Did they manage to beat these Yeerks?"

"Yes. It was a desperate, savage, brutal business, accomplished at terrible costs, but there was a decisive last battle where they finally forced the Yeerk hordes into submission."

"Sweetness. Good for them," the earthbender commented. "Sounds like those brave fighters won't be requiring any help from me then. Give them my regards, won't you Mr. Ellimist-Grandpa-Spirit Guy? Now could you please bring me back to Yu Dao so I can get on with my night?"

What the Ellimist said next completely surprised her.

"Toph," he said softly, "do you remember Jet?"

She went stock still at the sudden reminder.

"Yeah," she whispered quietly, regretfully. "I remember him all too well."

"If you could have had the ability to save him, to heal his wounds, would you have done so?"

"Of course I would!" Toph exclaimed simply. "I mean, yeah he'd been brainwashed into tricking us and I didn't know him all that well and he was probably too driven by revenge for his own good. But he was also a brave, awesome guy who fought alongside us against the Dai Li, had a good sense of humor, was loyal to his friends, and found the strength to defy Long Feng at the end. He deserved so much better then to die in that cavern Ellimist," she declared sadly. "I wish I could have done more."

"Understandable. As for me, I know of a human girl on Earth who was about Jet's age, who also deserved better then what happened to her during that last battle against the Yeerks...and like you, her four comrades deeply wish they could have done more to prevent it."

"Wait a moment, Ellimist," Toph said, holding up a hand. "Are you hinting that this girl was one of the five kids who fought the Yeerks?"

"That she was," he confirmed.

"And she got killed during that last battle?"

"She was someone whom I wanted to see survive, but it was not to be," the Ellimist said simply.

"That's really sad to hear," Toph stated sympathetically. "It really stinks whenever one of the good guys dies, and I'm sorry this messed-up Crayak guy wouldn't allow you to help her."

Then she felt a wave of wry amusement come off of the being as he said, "Crayak doesn't wield as much power as he likes to think he does though, and sometimes I can bend one of the game's rules now and then."

"You have already asked why I have chosen to bring you before me and for what purpose," the Ellimist continued. "Troubled by her fate and the effects it had on her friends, I have looked into both the future and the past, manipulated both time and space and so found a way to possibly save this girl, known as Rachel-but without using my power directly. Instead, I intend to put another girl-experienced, fearsome, clever, and fearless in battle-in a position to save her life...if she so chooses," he added.

Catching on, the blind earthbender coolly stated, "And that girl is none other than me, right? I'm the one you've picked to help you twist the rules of your game and save this 'Rachel.'"

"Yes, earthbender. This is the task I offer you."

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**Lots more to come!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Task? _Task?_ Whoa, let's back the cart up here, Ellimist! You want me, ME to agree to being whisked away to some entirely different world to play the cavalry, the big damn hero? Leave everything to save a random girl I don't even know?

"Don't you enjoy having adventures and fighting for a worthy cause?" the Ellimist prodded. "You certainly did while traveling with the Avatar."

The blind earthbender took a deep breath before stating, "Look Ellimist, we all know that I'm hardly the type to run from a fight, and I'm always willing to assist someone who's in need. And yeah, at one time I'd have jumped on your offer without a second thought."

"But things are different in my life now," she went on. "I'm the headmistress and instructor of the world's first ever metalbending academy, and have responsibilities to my students...incompetent wusses though they may be," she grumbled. "I can't abandon that and my new life, everything I understand and know, just to help you meddle with one girl's fate."

"There is no need to be concerned about that," the Ellimist assured her. "You will be sent to Earth and then, when your task is completed, sent back to your world in the same moment, without your students or anyone else having known you were ever gone."

"Really? In the **same** instant? Just...wow." That sort of control and power was too much for her mind to even halfway grasp.

"But at the same time, I can't promise you will even succeed in your duty. There is every chance Rachel will still die and you will die with her, and everything will have been for naught."

"Wow, now that's really encouraging," she muttered dryly, crossing her arms.

"I would not have chosen you if I didn't feel you had a sporting chance."

"Well, what are the Yeerks like? What will I be getting into with them exactly?"

"They are relentless, pitiless, cunning enemies, Miss Bei Fong-but at least they lack the ability to bend. Your new comrades would tell you more about them."

"Sounds like my idea of a good time," Toph grinned. "Okay, all-powerful Ellimist guy, your request is accepted," she declared.

"Then there is only one thing left to do," the Ellimist said.

She felt him walk up to her, and then the sudden, firm pressure of his manifestation's thumbs, one against her Adam's apple, the other placed against the side of her head, above and slightly behind her eye socket.

There was a sharp, swift sort of shock, a profound tingle that ran through her spine, twisted through her chi.

Then, before she could say another word, draw another breath into her lungs, Toph was alone again, in the midst of a great forest.

"What...what did you just _do_ to me?" a shocked Toph shouted, one of her hands flying to her quivering throat.

_WORKING WITH THE ANIMORPHS SHOULD BE A LOT EASIER IF YOU CAN SPEAK IN THEIR LANGUAGE AS WELL._

"Language?" she replied quizzically. "They talk in a whole different _**language**_? How am I _possibly_ going to be able to understand them then-and how will they understand _me_?"

_I GAVE YOU THAT GIFT JUST NOW, EARTHBENDER. SIMPLY ALTER YOUR CHI AS YOU DO WHENEVER BENDING TO USE IT._

"And that'll let me speak their language, understand what they say? You're just full of _awesome_, you know that?"

_I WILL RETURN TO BRING YOU HOME WHEN-OR IF-IT IS TIME, TOPH BEI FONG. FIGHT WELL._

"Wait a minute!" she cried. "What are their names, Ellimist? Where can I find these guys? Can any of them bend too?"

She waited for a while, expectantly.

But there was no response.

"Shit," she snarled in defeat before striding off to the southeast, using her ears and seismic sense alike to scan among the trunks of the trees for any useful signs, any clues that might lead her to these "Animorphs," in this strange, alien forest.

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**Next chapter, Toph searches for the Animorphs-and finds them. She also finds that Earth is a world beyond her imagination.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Tobias**

My name is Tobias. And I was feeling pretty thirsty this afternoon.

There was a time once where if I wanted a drink, all I'd have to do is walk up to a faucet, stick a glass or my head under the spigot, and turn the knob. Or just press the button on a water fountain.

Not anymore. You see, I don't exactly have hands in this body.

Now I manipulate and grab things with two sets of curved, dagger-sharp talons and a hooked beak.

I'm currently inhabiting the body of a red-tailed hawk, you see. Permanently.

Thanks to a bit of time-tweaking by this more or less godlike dude known as the Ellimist, I can take a break from this surreal state of affairs to become my former self or another animal, but never for more than two hours.

I've accepted that I am what I am. Plus, spending the majority of your day literally living as a wild animal leaves little time for self-pity. But back to the afternoon's events.

It hadn't rained for at least over a week, and the meadow where I generally hunted had grown dry and crisp in the warm wind.

That translated into less prey, and less water.

I normally drank from a big creek that ran through my territory. It had nice gravel banks to stand on, was in a fairly open area of the forest, and was nice and clear. Now it had turned into a series of shallow, muddy, stagnant pools.

The hawk in me didn't really care. It would've drunk from a mud puddle if it had to.

But my human brain did.

Leaping from the branch I'd been panting on, I flapped hard to gain altitude, the ground falling further away with every beat of my wings.

Flapping along like a duck for any real length of time is always hard work for me, but it especially sucks when it's hot out. Feathers are pretty useful for helping me take to the sky and keep warm, but oh man, on a hot day it's like being forced to do the hundred yard dash in a full-length fur coat.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before I found a nice thermal, and rode the shaft of heated air way up above the trees.

Turning, I sailed west, leaving my territory and soaring over the national forest behind the town. There was a river that flowed through these hundreds of square miles of woodland, and that's where I was headed.

When I saw the glint of water through the trees, I angled my wings and gently glided down in a series of slow circles. Even from so high up, I could see an exposed sandbar in the river. A perfect place to land.

And a safe one. It was almost hard to remember now that once there had actually been a time when I could not only drink from a tap, but do so without having to worry about being bushwhacked by a coyote or a raccoon or a bobcat.

Even here, there was always the slight chance that a snapping turtle could grab me by the face and haul me into the water.

I put on the air brakes, touched down on the coarse oblong of sand, walked to the water that flowed around it, and lowered my head to fill my beak, tilting it back to let the water trickle down my throat.

After drinking enough to refresh myself, I pushed off into the air again to head back to what I guess you could call my "home."

It was just a couple minutes later when I spotted the short girl, dressed in green and tan, her hair worn in a huge bun at the back of her head. She was barefoot for some reason, yet it didn't seem to bother her as she picked her way through the forest.

If I'd still had facial muscles, I would've expressed my puzzlement in a frown as I glided closer to get a better look. What was she doing here all by herself in the middle of the woods, far from any roads or trails?

She was wearing a loose green shirt with elbow-length sleeves underneath a tan-yellow tunic, secured with a dirty yellow sash.

Okay. That was just a bit unusual. Tunics of any kind were _not _the sort of thing you see preteen girls in turn-of-the-millennium America wearing, unless it was Halloween or for a play.

Her hair was secured by a green, peaked headband with a dangling yellow tassel on each end, and she wore a pair of very loose, almost skirt-like, knee length pants.

Around her wrists and ankles were studded leather bands, from which green fabric covered the tops of her hands and feet. This chick or the culture she belonged to sure had a thing for the color green.

Something was definitely odd about her presence here, to say the least.

Sad as it is, suspicion and paranoia have become a way of life for us Animorphs. This could be some Yeerk trick.

Yet, I couldn't imagine even the most ignorant Yeerk dressing their human host in a getup like this, or forcing her to wander around by herself in the middle of nowhere, putting her in a situation where she could potentially die-and the Yeerk with her.

Mostly I was both intrigued and concerned about if she was all right.

I circled lower, silently watching her walk and jump over logs.

Her motions were confident, natural and unhurried. She didn't look upset or wounded or like she was messed up in the head. Nor did I see any sign that she was carrying weapons, which was encouraging.

She did seem a little perplexed at times, stopping every so often to get her bearings before shrugging and uncertainly moving on.

A squirrel leapt between two trees just in front of her, landing on the other branch with a hissing crash of leaves, and she idly lifted her head to see it better-or so I thought.

Even from three hundred feet above the trees, I could see her face as easily as if I'd been having a talk with her, and nearly gasped in shock when I looked at her eyes.

They were almond shaped and green in color. But there was a misty veil across them, and her stare was blank, unfocused. She was totally blind.

It was a reckless move to say the least, but my gut reaction was to turn on the thought-speak.

(Hey, blind girl. Need help down there?)

I saw her stop with a jolt and stagger, head darting around, shocked and amazed at the sound of my silent voice in her brain.

She spat out something in Chinese. Great, she didn't speak English.

Still, I could tell from her tone that she'd made a demand, most likely the equivalent of "Who's there?" or "What's going on?"

(I'm Tobias,) I replied. (Do you need help or want me to help you find your way out of here?)

Her tone of voice was more confused, inquiring, as she spoke in Chinese again.

This time though, I caught two recognizable words. One, not surprisingly, was my name being repeated.

The other was "Ellimist."

I can't exactly say it was that big of a shock.

Suddenly the blind girl spoke again, with more of an effort than before.

This time, her words were in English.

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**Please leave reviews, k?**


	4. Chapter 4

Toph lightly placed her left foot on the trunk of a fallen maple tree, feeling the brief sensation of rough-textured bark against her sole before nimbly hopping over it.

She'd been walking through these woods for a little under 45 minutes, spending a good deal of that time being more than a little irked at the Ellimist for leaving her hanging like this, without even having the decency to tell her where the nearest town was, much less where to find these Animorphs.

Even worse, he'd just _**had**_ to drop her in the middle of thick, trackless forest, with twigs that painfully caught in her bun and trees that broke up the vibrations from her footsteps, restricting her seismic sensing to a distance of only sixty paces or so.

Fuming wasn't going to solve anything though, and all the earthbender could do was just keep moving until she finally got out of these woods and found a village or town. Then she'd figure out what to do next.

As her frustration had subsided, and she'd accepted that she was on her own, Toph had switched her focus to taking in the forest she was traveling through, analyzing it with her feet and ears and nose and hands.

The Ellimist had been right when he'd said that this Earth was both similar yet different to the world she knew. There were ferns and dead leaves and moss and twigs carpeting the forest floor, just like in the sort she was familiar with. The trees were pretty much the same as well, with bushes and tall grass and younger trees growing among them, just like back home.

There were insects flying and crawling about (including biting ones, but hey, no place is perfect), birds hopping and singing in the trees, and squirrels rustling through the leaves. A few times Toph even heard a loud crashing and felt the thudding of four cloven hooves against the dirt as large animals that had to be either a sort of deer or antelope bounded away from her in alarm.

The calls of the birds and insects were different than anything she'd heard before though, and she could feel that at least some of the animals that were on the ground, such as the groundhogs and turkeys, had different types of body shapes.

The air just also felt, well, grungier in her nostrils, containing faint but distinct burnt odors. Part of it was due to the dry, dusty weather, but Toph didn't think that was the entire reason behind it. It reminded her of the air near the Fire Nation factory.

There was a high crash of foliage in front of her as some creature, probably a squirrel of some type, leapt a gap between two trees and came down on another branch, which dipped and then sprung back at the impact.

Despite her blindness, the earthbender still casually raised her head toward the sound in the same instinctive manner of a horse spooking at the sudden motion of a chipmunk.

Then she spooked herself as another voice-that-was-not-a-voice drifted, dreamlike, through her head.

(Hey blind girl. Need help down there?)

Jerking to a stop, Toph's head swiveled about in confusion as she tried to pinpoint where this new mind-speaker was. It certainly didn't seem to her like the Ellimist this time.

His silent speech had been profound and ancient in its manner, great wise cadences that filled all of existence, very similar to how Aang had described the voice of the great lion-turtle.

The way this new speaker had just addressed her was softer, more conversational. There was no real sense of authority to it either.

"Okay, who's talking inside my head this time now? And yeah, it sure would be nice if you could show me the way out of these woods."

There was a pause.

(I'm Tobias,) the male voice-from the tone, it seemed like he was close to Snoozles in age-informed her. (Do you need help or want me to help you find your way out of here?) It seemed to be coming from a place somewhere _above _her. Interesting. She wondered if the speaker was an airbender like Aang or riding in a balloon.

"Tobias?" Toph repeated in bewilderment, eyebrows furrowing. Now that was a pretty odd name. "And since you apparently didn't catch it the first time, some help with the directions would be awfully nice-assuming you don't have the same 'Fend for yourself' attitude that the Ellimist seems to," she snorted.

There was no response this time.

Mentioning the Ellimist made the blind girl remember suddenly how he'd touched her on the throat and head, telling her that he'd given her the ability to speak and understand a new language, altering her chi in some way.

Like a traveler testing the depth of a silt-filled stream with a stick or pole, Toph assessed the meridians running through her stocky body.

And the Ellimist had been correct. He _had_ altered them in some way, implanted a gift ready for her to unlock.

And so she did just that.

"Y...ye...esss," she replied.

"S...sh...ow mmm...ee ou...ttt."

The earthbender jerked sharply in surprise then at what'd occurred, clapping her hands over her mouth. She nearly screamed, but forced it down somehow.

After all, she'd just heard herself speak in a brand new language, one she'd never even known existed.

Her own voice had sounded utterly alien to her, deeper and choppy and glottal and slurred. The words had to be spoken with an effort, torn from her throat.

Silence again. She heard some flying creature, something with large claws, land on a bough somewhere above her. If she'd been required to guess by sound alone, it seemed most like one of the Fire Nation's messenger hawks, but bulkier.

Toph had the impression that this "Tobias" was considering, debating what do next.

After a bit, he asked her (First of all, what's your name?)

"Toph Bei Fong," she replied, and still more than a little freaked by what she was hearing herself do.

(Cool. Now uh, Toph, have you ever heard of an Andalite?)

The blind earthbender felt her brow knit in utter puzzlement.

"An...and...da...li..lite? No, ne...nev...er."

(That's definitely an encouraging sign,) he muttered, more to himself then to her. (Anyway Toph, I'll lead you out of here. Every so often you're going to hear me rustle leaves or scratch at a log. When you do, walk in that direc-)

"Uh-Tobias right?-may I a...asss...kkuh you a que...sttt...ion?" Slowly but surely, she was beginning to get the hang of this new tongue. Just as well, because this hissing and stuttering was immensely embarrassing.

(Go right ahead.)

"The Ell...elli...miissstt t...old me to fi...nd the...se k...k...id...ss who I th...thi...think are called the An...ani...mor...phs," the earthbender remarked. "Do you kn...knoww...wh...e..re to fi...nd them?"

Another, weighted silence.

"Well? I don't have all day!"

(Yes Toph, I do,) he replied. (I can bring you to a place where you can meet them.)

"You c...annn?" Toph said excitedly. "Then le...t's geee...t going!"

(Just follow the sound of my scratching then,) the speaker somewhere above her replied. (You'll be out of here in a few hours.)

Toph then heard a flapping of wings as the bird of prey above her leapt from the branch and into the air.

The fact that it was happening to leave just as her mysterious guide was too sure was quite a coincidence.

Then the thought slid through the earthbender's mind like a swamp viper through reeds, even though it made no sense in the least.

_And maybe it wasn't..._

With a shock, the blind girl realized the hawk and Tobias were probably one and the same!

It was confirmed when she heard the same bird land near the ground, on a log, and rake it with its talons several times.

"You-you're a _hawk_!" she gasped. "A talking hawk! Kuh."

(Crazy as I know it seems, that I am,) Tobias droned. There was something resigned and bitter in his tone. (Well, technically an adolescent boy trapped in a hawk's body.)

"You're fricking kidding me, right?" Toph said, tilting her head even as she began to walk toward him.

(I wish I was, believe me,) he sighed in her skull, wings flapping as he took to the air.

"But-but that's crazy!" Toph shouted, flinging out her arms, her right one raking through a sapling's leaves. "How could something like that happen to you Tobias-to anyone? Did some sort of spirit do that to you?"

(Nope, wasn't a spirit.)

"Then what?"

(Let's just say it's a long, utterly insane story and leave it at that for now,) Tobias replied. (My friends and I will explain everything later.)

With Tobias the hawk boy leading her along with his occasional log-raking, Toph set out eastward through the forest at an even trot, jumping over or weaving around obstacles as she had to.

At first Hawk Boy made a point of stopping and clawing bark or jumping in the dry leaves every few paces, giving helpful tips like (There's a boulder sticking out of the ground four feet in front of you,) or (Watch out for that cluster of dogwood bushes up ahead.)

She knew he was just trying to be helpful towards the little lost blind girl, but it soon got to be a bit much for her to stand.

"Uh, Hawk Boy," she told him calmly as she could, "you don't have to stop to claw logs every three paces you know. And you definitely don't need to warn me about everything that's in my path."

(I've been noticing you seem to have an uncanny knack for not tripping over things,) he commented. (How in the world are you able to do it?)

"I can sense them through the soles of my feet," she replied. "I just send out gentle waves of earthbending with each step and feel how they bounce off things."

(Earthbending. Ooookkkay,) Tobias replied in a this-girl-is-not-all-there type of tone. (Forget I said anything.)

His comment left Toph more than a little bemused. It was perfectly understandable that he knew nothing of her ability to sense things through vibrations, but he'd said earthbending as if it was a totally novel, ungraspable concept for him. Could he honestly never have heard of bending before?

Pushing it to the back of her mind, she shrugged and said, "Anyway Hawk Boy, just stop and make some noise every hundred paces or so until the trees get thinner, okay?"

(You bet.)

They started moving through the woods again. With Tobias leading her in the right direction, Toph jogged through the trees at a good clip.

It wasn't long until she figured out from the way the sun's rays were hitting her that Hawk Boy was leading her more or less southeast, and ceased to bother listening to his signals any longer.

Soon the forest became thinner, with open meadows and overgrown clearings here and there.

Now the blind earthbender could find her way around just fine.

All the same, she continued to at least acknowledge Tobias, who was now simply hanging somewhere high in the air above her.

(Ok, we're going to come to this shallow ravine soon,) he addressed her. (There's an overhanging ledge of rock there with a small cave underneath that I'll bring you to.)

Even though she could sense it perfectly fine, Toph simply said "Okay. Then what?"

(Then I'm going to get my friends and bring them back here to speak with you.)

As they entered the upstream end of the ravine, Toph said "I wa...nt to aa...sss...kkk you som...ting Hawk Boy," as she expertly worked her way around the rounded boulders.

(I'm listening.)

"First of all, _what_ is the name of this ran...dom new lan...gu...age the Ellimist gave me the pow...errr to sp...eak?"

(It's called English,) Hawk Boy informed her. (Good thing he did too, since it tends to be pretty popular around here,) he said wryly.

Toph had to laugh at that, her airborne guide chuckling along with her.

The cave in the wall of the ravine was fairly small, about four paces deep by two and a half wide, its roof about a head higher than she was. The earthbender took two steps inside before sitting down, her back against the left wall.

She sent out another weak wave of bending to examine her surroundings. In front of her was a thin trickle of water, the other side of the ravine, then yet more trees and the roots they stood on, stretching for several thousand more paces before ending. Beyond that were open fields and pastures, some containing large animals which were somewhat like ostrich horses in form, yet also quite different. They had four legs instead of two, for one thing, and bore their weight on a single large, blocky round hoof.

She sensed the vibrations and heard the scrape of Tobias' talons as he landed on a small outcrop of sandstone above the cave entrance.

"Okay then Toph, I'm going to leave and collect my friends now,) he told her. (Just make yourself comfortable and stay here until I come back.)

"Why can't I just come with you?"

(They live in different places for one thing, so it's a lot easier this way. It's also safer, since we don't want to draw attention to ourselves if we can help it,) he added darkly.

"Let me guess, you and your friends must be like that because they're the ones the Ellimist told me about, right?" Toph asked, her excitement rising as she put two and two together. "You're the ones who fight the Yee...rks, the Animorphs!"

(That we are,) Hawk Boy said proudly. (We hurt those nasty slugs whenever we can, however we can.)

"Wow, I'm glad I ran into you so quickly then," Toph said as she picked her right nostril.

(Anyway, give me about an hour. My pals should be out of school by then.)

"_School?_" the earthbender repeated in surprise before laughing. "You mean your friends are fighting against the armies of a huge hush-hush invasion, but still need to go to school?"

(It's all just part of the insanity,) Hawk Boy replied, his tone simultaneously glib and sardonic. (Anyway, see ya later.)

"Okay," she yawned. The journey through the forest had been tiring, and the small cave was a great place to take a nap until Hawk Boy and the others came back.

First though, there was one little alteration she wanted to make.

Standing erect, the blind girl thrust out her arms and _pulled _to the right. The Earth stone responded as she'd expected by sliding to cover the cave entrance.

From above her, in her skull, Toph heard her guide gasp in uncomprehending shock. (Oh. My. God. Did-did you just_ do_ what I think I saw Toph?)

"Um, yeah, I earthbended the mouth of the cave shut."

(Every time I think I've reached the sheer freaking foundation of insanity, someone just **_has_** to throw me a sharper shovel,) she heard him mutter in utter disbelief as he rapidly flew off.

As she laid down on the cave floor in a supine position and closed her eyes to doze in the cool darkness, Toph Bei Fong briefly wondered in puzzlement just what the big deal was.

* * *

**Next up: The Animorphs realize they've been sent one potent living weapon against the Yeerks and Toph gets welcomed to the team.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Wow! Finally, my first review! Keep them coming people. Heck, just tell me how I'm doing. Are the characters staying in character? Is the dialogue natural? That sort of thing.**

**Anyway, here's another chapter. **

* * *

Marco.

(I only know what I saw,) Tobias repeated, fluffing his wings in that comical hawk version of a shrug. (And like I said, I saw Toph move an actual slab of rock without touching it!)

As usual, we were all gathered together in Cassie's barn, or the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic if you prefer, filled with sick and wounded mammals and birds of all types, even a few turtles and other reptiles.

Right now though, there was only one bird that had our attention.

We all stared back at where he was perched in the barn rafters, uncomprehending. I mean, having one of your friends-who just happens to be trapped in a hawk's body, may I add-telling you he's come across some blind Chinese girl in the woods who's like a cross between Daredevil and Jean Grey from X-Men is _so _not the sort of thing you're used to hearing about.

Of course, considering that she herself had said flat-out that the Ellimist was involved, I couldn't find it in me to be all that surprised.

"But how could that even be possible?" Rachel asked in confusion. "Yeah, you hear about psychic powers on shows like Unsolved Mysteries and Sightings, and I'm not saying I don't believe in that stuff, but for it to be so advanced that she can actually use her mind to move things by...oh, what's the word?"

"Telekinesis," I helpfully replied.

"Wow, so you are good for something after all Marco," she said in mock surprise. "Sure had me fooled."

"I try," I grinned.

"Where did the Ellimist _get_ someone like her from, I wonder?" Jake said.

(Don't know, but one look at the way she's dressed alone should tell you she's not a local girl,) Tobias replied.

"But yet she still speaks Chinese," I said thoughtfully.

"Maybe she lived sometime in Ancient China, long ago?" Cassie proposed.

(Could be,) Tobias admitted. (Still, wouldn't you think that if there was a person, a family, a village of people who could move solid stone around with their minds, it would've been mentioned in our history books or on TV?)

"And the Chinese kept pretty good civil records," Rachel pointed out, "especially when it came to weird things like this."

"Yeah, and they also believed in dragons too," I dryly added.

(Personally, I don't think she's from Earth at all,) Tobias commented. (I think she's kind of like the Vulcans in Star Trek.)

"Does she have the funny pointed ears too?" I smirked.

Tobias laughed. (No, but what I'm saying is I think she belongs to a species which is extremely _similar_ to human beings in how they look, act, move, sense the world, and communicate-but not quite.)

"Kind of like the difference between Cro-Magnons and Neandertals," I suggested.

(Yeah, though it's a lot smaller than that between us and her. Way smaller.)

"Well we all know there's no difference with Marco," Rachel smugly needled.

"Yeah, and I also have a fondness for dragging chicks by the hair back to my pad, so you'd better watch your back Sun Hair," I taunted.

Turning to our favorite alien centaur, Jake asked, "Ax, have you ever heard of any alien species like this?"

Lying in the straw like a resting deer, Ax simply twisted his bladed tail in a gesture of confusion.

(No, Prince Jake,) he replied. (While we Andalites know of some telekinetic lifeforms, none bear even a modest resemblance to humans in either their form or language. It would seem to me that this 'Toph' belongs to a race from another galaxy, perhaps even another universe.)

"Now that would be one heck of a case of convergent evolution," Cassie muttered.

"Well, where she's from doesn't really matter," Jake dismissed, running a hand through his hair. "The real question is, can we trust her? And should we allow her to become an Animorph, give her the power?"

(I don't think she's a danger to us, I can tell you that much,) Tobias replied. (She seemed friendly enough, and like I said, didn't get aggressive or indignant when I mentioned the word Andalite.)

"Plus, why would the Ellimist send us a Controller as a potential new member?" Rachel pointed out.

"Unless it's Crayak who's actually pulling the strings this time," I said darkly. "He could be lying to her, using her like he used the Howlers."

Ax shook his head. (Even with her ability to sense vibrations and telekinetically manipulate the earth, few Yeerks would have interest in infesting a blind host,) he commented, with that repulsive type of scornful attitude that _really_ gets under my skin.

"I hate to admit it, but Ax is right," Cassie agreed. "Remember, the biggest appeal of a host for Yeerks is the ability to see."

(And again, when I was with her in the forest, she had plenty of chances to attack me if she wanted,) Tobias reminded us. (Those aren't the actions of someone who's been brainwashed or whatever by Crayak into wanting to harm us.)

"So I guess we can all agree that Toph can most likely be trusted," Jake said. "That still leaves the question of whether we should not only take her in, but give her the ability to morph."

We all glanced at each other uneasily, warily.

The Ellimist had sent her to us for a reason, to hook up with our team.

But did that mean we should let her? Was it the safe thing to do? Was it the _right _thing?

The power the Andalite gave us was an astonishing gift.

And a dreadful curse as well.

If I had a dollar for every time I've wished that we'd never gone through that construction site, never gotten involved in this insane, desperate little war that has nearly gotten us killed more times than I want to think about, I would be rolling in five hundred dollar bills.

Seriously, I wouldn't wish this on the worst gangbanger or school bully.

Even better, we actually have the morphing cube itself, and I still haven't decided whether it would be for the best to keep it squirreled away in some ultra-secure place, or to just chuck it in an industrial trash compactor and be done with it.

On the other hand, it sure does have a lot of potential to shift the balance in our favor...

"I'm not really comfortable with this," Rachel stated. "This is too much like the situation with David. Heck, Tobias is the only one of us who's even laid eyes on Toph yet! How can we make a decision based on that?"

"It's a big risk," I agreed. "We don't know a thing about her personality, how she reacts under stress, how comfortable she is with taking orders, that sort of thing."

"Question is, do we really have any other choice?" Jake shrugged. "Even if she's blind, sooner or later the Yeerks will find out about her powers-and infest her. That ability makes her one _major_ wild card, and I'd much rather see her using it for our team instead of theirs."

"A telekinetic Controller," Rachel shuddered. "We would be in such deep doo-doo I don't want to even think about it."

(I agree with Prince Jake,) Ax said. (To accept a stranger, and one from a race even we Andalites have never heard of, is a great risk indeed. Yet it is far more risky to allow her to potentially fall into Yeerk hands.)

Jake shot me a glance.

"You have a pretty good point there Big Jake," I acknowledged. "The Ellimist sent us an opportunity, and we'd better take it."

"Still, step number one should be to pay Toph a visit first," I added. "Talk with her, learn more about her, see her in action."

"And most of all, ask her what _she_ wants to do," Cassie added.

"Cool. Let's go have a nice chat with the psychic rock-throwing blind girl then," Rachel said as she stood up.

"I've got to admit, I'm pretty curious to see this earthbending ability of hers in person," Jake chimed in as we all got to our feet. "Ax, you'd better morph human, okay? Otherwise she'd probably have a major freakout or at least be on her guard the second she sensed you coming."

(I shall Prince Jake. With such a strange and dangerous ability, we must take every precaution not to alarm her.)

Now, let's back the truck up and look at the bigger picture, shall we?

Four kids and an Andalite that's beginning to turn into a kid are preparing to follow a Bird-boy through the woods to a place where he left a blind girl who speaks recognizable Chinese, claims to sense things with her feet, and can move/break solid rock with the power of her mind. Oh, and did I mention that a vast, near-godlike being who could split our sun in two with just a gentle karate chop of his inter-dimensional hand or leap from one side of the Milky Way to the other in less time than it takes to belch sent her over here to back us up?

Question: Are our lives utterly insane on seven different levels?

We should all know the answer by now.


	6. Chapter 6

**At long last, here's where Toph meets the rest of the Animorphs-and they both witness how truly astonishing the other's abilities are...**

* * *

Even if she was in/on another world, Toph still slept comfortably against the dirt and stone she knew so well, her breathing the only sound in the enclosed darkness.

She was woken from her nap by the shockwaves of human footsteps coming in her direction. Rising into a squatting position, the earthbender interpreted the information they contained.

There were five in all, three guys and two girls, one shorter than the other. The group was about 600 paces away from her.

Although it was difficult for her to sense in any detail what sort of clothing a person was wearing with her earthbending, Toph could still sense enough to tell her that their garb was nothing like she was used to.

All three of the guys were wearing waist-length garments that seemed like the upper portion of her tunic, hanging loosely off of their shoulders. They all wore a sort of modified loincloth composed of overlapping panels of cotton fabric, with two of them wearing ankle-length pants, the other wearing a knee-length garment.

One of the girls, tall, curvy and elegantly built, wore a form-fitting waist-length garment of cotton cloth, supported by two thin straps which curved over the shoulders, and a long skirt underneath. The other one, shorter and stockier, wore a thicker shirt with elbow length sleeves, much closer to the type the boys wore, and a similar pair of full length pants.

But what was really odd were the shoes they wore.

Although she always went barefoot, Toph was nonetheless very familiar with how shoes "felt."

These shoes were partly made of leather and cloth, but also partly made of some strange, resilient, springy material she'd never encountered before. More Earthly weirdness.

As for Hawk Boy's location...

(Hey there Toph, I'm back again. Want to come out and meet the rest of the team?)

She sure did.

Taking a horse stance, the earthbender held out her arms and _pushed_, knocking the slab of stone down with a great _CRACK! _against the boulders of the ravine.

She could feel the heartbeats of the other teens spike and their muscles jerk in response as the tall girl shouted, "My God, what was _that_?" and Tobias cried (She just did it again! She flung the rock slab away without even touching it!)

"Whoa!" the shortest of the boys yelped.

As she strode out of the cave, it once more crossed Toph's mind how strange their reactions were. The sneaking suspicion came to her that perhaps these guys too, had no experience with bending at all.

She took a seat on the slab's edge and waited as all five kids uncertainly entered the ravine by the same path she had.

(Uh Toph, these are my friends. Guys and gals, meet Toph.)

"So, you g...gu...ys must be the resistance force the Ellimist has been telling me so much about," she stated matter-of-factly, her voice still stumbling over the unfamiliar tones. "Pleased to meet ya."

"You as well," the tallest of the three boys replied as she felt him stride up to her. "I'm Jake."

"He's the boss of this particular little crew of lunatics," the shorter boy quipped.

And indeed, he certainly had the aspect of a leader about him.

"The only lunatic in this club is you Marco," the taller girl snorted. "As for me, I'm Rachel."

Headstrong and to the point. Toph decided she liked this "Rachel" already.

"And I'm Cassie," the shorter girl said. Through the soles of her feet, the blind girl felt her give a light bow, hands together. Somehow she knew a proper formal greeting. Interesting.

Taking his cue, the last boy, the one between Jake and Marco in height, who seemed distinctly hesitant and uncertain in his own skin and his gait, often cocking and turning his head as he walked, now introduced himself.

"My name is Aximili, but if you prefer, you may refer to me as Ax, like my human comrades do."

The earthbender's eyebrows drew together in major puzzlement at Aximili's last cadence.

"Wait, did you just say human?" Toph asked, holding up a finger. "As in, you're actually _not _human, although you're in a human body? You are seriously confusing me right now, you know that?"

There was nothing in the boy's tone, posture, or heartbeat to indicate that he was lying-unless, like Psycho Princess, he was especially adept at it. But Toph really doubted he had it in him to be that smooth.

"As completely crazy as it rightfully is, it's true," Marco replied. "Ax here is an Andalite. He's just in a human form at the moment."

"What's an Anda-you know, never mind, this is just making me even more confused than I already was," Toph muttered, rubbing her temples.

"Guess we'd better show you what one is then...so to speak," Jake added. "Okay Ax, you can demorph now."

Demorph?

"All right Toph," Jake went on. "Place your hand on Ax's side when I tell you and keep it there while he changes. It'll probably freak yo-"

"Changes? What! You mean he's actually going to turn into some other...thing!"

"Exactly," Marco replied. "It's called morphing, and Ax is going to transform back into his natural Andalite body."

"So, it's like bending, except you do it to your own body instead of an element," Toph said to Ax. "That's awesome! Weird, but totally awesome!"

There was an unexpected silence then, strange and weighted.

Through the soles of her feet, she could sense the incomprehension coming off all four of them.

"Bending. Rriigghhttt," Marco said skeptically, in an echo of Tobias' earlier reaction.

"Bending? What does _that_ mean?" Rachel said in bemusement. "I'm guessing you don't mean bending over."

She simply couldn't believe it.

"Oh, come on," she laughed. "Don't tell me you guys haven't heard of bending before."

"Never," Jake replied. "You'll have to tell us about it."

He was sincere. All of them were, and Toph felt an oily, sinking feeling begin to develop in her stomach.

Surprised and stricken at once, the blind girl held up her hands as she said, "No way. I refuse to accept that it's not just a case of you guys or the people of your specific nation being unable to bend, but that there's no one else on this 'Earth' of yours who can do it either!"

"Sorry, but it's true," Marco replied. "There's no human on this ball of rock that can do this bending stuff you're talking about." His voice and heartbeat seethed with an impossible conviction.

(If it's any consolation Toph,) Hawk-Boy said gently, (Ax-man and I know how you must be taking this news. We're cut off from everything we know too.)

"Strangers in a strange land, as one famous human novel is titled," Ax chimed in, nodding in understanding.

But the blind earthbender wasn't so much devastated as confused and flabbergasted.

"You're all nonbenders! Every single one of you? But...how do you get anything _done_? How do you defend yourselves, do construction work? How do you deal with disasters, move things from one place to another? I can't imagine you rely on just manpower or draft animals alone."

"We do to some degree," Cassie replied, "but we mostly use machines for most of that stuff-polluting as it is," she grumbled.

"I guess that makes sense," Toph said thoughtfully. "You'd have to. Also explains why the air is so darn grimy compared to what I'm used to."

A world of nonbenders! The very concept made Toph Bei Fong's head reel. How could such a thing be? She'd definitely have to ask the Ellimist next time he showed up.

As the realization began to sink in, she suddenly felt more than a little lonely. A sudden sense of isolation that even the years of being confined to her parents' estate couldn't match swept through her. There were no other benders, beings like her on this 'Earth!'

But it also meant that she was suddenly something very special and unique, a thousand times more so than she, discoverer of metal bending and the most accomplished earthbender in her native world, was already!

_Sweetness!_ She thought in gleeful satisfaction, grinning widely. She was going to rock this place!

"Uh, Toph," Jake politely cut in, "no offense, but it's becoming late, and we have to go back to our families sooner rather than later. We want to see what this bending stuff is all about, and make sure you not only understand what morphing is, but why we use it. And we also need to decide where you're going to stay and how we're going to provide for your needs until the Ellimist comes back for you-all without attracting attention of course," he pointedly added.

"Definitely," Marco agreed. "Don't take this the wrong way, but among other things, those clothes would be just a bit out of place if you took a stroll through town," he said dryly.

"So I'll have to wear stuff that'll let me blend in," she commented. "That's cool with me. I mean, I've done it before in the Fire Na-oh yeah, you don't know about them yet."

"Well, I'll certainly be happy to set you up with a new wardrobe," Rachel offered, "one that's both appropriate _and _fashionable."

"Wow, that's really nice of you, Tough Girl. Thanks!"

"Tough Girl, huh?" Rachel repeated, a feeling of smug, thoughtful approval emanating from her.

"What can I say, I'm a nickname kind of person," Toph shrugged.

"Tough Girl," Rachel said again as she grinned. "If that's my nickname now, then I love it!"

"Oh great Xena, I can feel your head swelling that much more already," Marco groaned as Toph felt him put his right hand over his face in a gesture of exasperation.

Feeling the mounting impatience coming from Jake, the earthbender steered back to the topic at hand, standing erect as she declared, "Okay, let me spell out for you what this bending stuff is all about-and why it's so awesome."

"First," she began, holding up one finger, "bending in my world means a person has the ability to manipulate one of the four elements in all its forms with their jing, or inner force. It may be air, water, fire-although they usually generate it from within their bodies-or as in my case, earth."

"Are any of them able to use the heart power too?" Marco quipped.

Tough Girl sighed. "This is really not the time to be making some lame Captain Planet joke, okay Marco? Besides, it'll only confuse her."

"Why not? She sure confuses me."

"Guys," Cassie admonished. "This is important."

"As I said, bending relies on being able to direct your energy both through and outside of your body in a certain, controlled way, and into whatever element you have mastery of-assuming you were born with the ability in the first place," she added, thinking of Sokka.

"This sounds remarkably similar to the principle behind morphing," Ax said in amazement.

"So you're saying not everybody where you come from can do this 'bending?'" Rachel stated.

"Nope, they don't have the talent. I guess some people just aren't as fortunate," Toph smugly shrugged.

"I wonder if it's a genetic thing," Cassie commented to Jake. "You think so?"

"Maybe."

"Now, if I remember correctly," Toph went on, probing her memories of Master Yu's lectures, "there are three main types of jing: Positive, which deals with advancing or directly attacking, negative, which deals with fleeing or dodging, and the type I use as an earthbender, neutral jing, which is about waiting and listening until the perfect moment to _strike!_"

And at the word strike, she raised her right foot, slamming it into the ravine floor as she lightly _pushed _through her bare sole, causing a two pace long crack to form before her in the stone.

She laughed internally as all five teens jumped back like startled rabbits, hearts beating wildly and muscles taut with consternation.

"Oh my God!" Cassie yelped.

"Holy shit!" Jake exclaimed.

"Okay, now this is officially too crazy to handle!" Marco cried as he backpedaled.

"No. Way. Now _that_ is bad-ass!" Tough Girl said approvingly, if shakily.

"Aaaahhhhh! _Aaaahhhhh!_" Ax shouted as he flailed backward.

(See! That's the freaky thing I was talking about with the stone door!) Tobias' voice rang in her head.

"Freaky indeed," Marco unsteadily replied. "Remind me to never, _ever_ piss you off Toph."

Everyone was shaking, filled with the same awe and fear she'd felt in the desert when Aang had gone into the Avatar state for the first time in her presence. She felt both sympathetic and like laughing at the same time.

Poor guys didn't know _what_ to think about the extraordinary power she'd just displayed.

"Take it easy guys," she laughed. "It's not like I'm gonna hurt you. Besides, that was nothing compared to what I'm _really _capable of."

"Like what?" Cassie asked warily, her heartbeat becoming slightly less frantic.

"Oh, I can toss boulders two hundred times my weight across a distance of a thousand paces, bend a good-sized hill or even mountain of rock out of the ground, sense where things are with my feet, use a pillar of stone to launch myself into the air, slide over the surface of the ground on a wave of earth, cause rockslides, tunnel through stone, make stone armor, and yank the dirt out from underneath someone-and that's not even the half of it," she grinned smugly. "And oh yeah, I've discovered how to bend _solid metal_ too!"

Everyone was distinctly impressed, to say the least.

"Then I would say the Ellimist made a brilliant choice in sending you here to be our ally," Ax stated.

"I'd sure say," Jake heartily agreed.

"Oh, the Yeerks are going to be in one heck of a lot of trouble now," Marco laughed in gleeful anticipation. "You are going to kick their butts so bad!"

"What does it feel like to bend the earth?" Cassie asked, her voice filled with wonder.

"It feels awesome, that's what," the blind girl grinned.

"No, I meant inside your head when you do it, when you focus the energy."

"Oh. Well, the best answer I can give is that first there's a _change _in your mind," she shrugged. "It's like sitting next to a still pond and then suddenly hearing a fish splash, or opening your eyes when you wake up, except it's in your mind. I think of it as The Blink."

"Then," she went on as she turned around to face the slab that had been her temporary door, "depending on what I want to do, I either _push _out or _pull_ towards myself with my jing-just like _**this!**_"

And as the word _this _left her lips, Toph thrust out her right hand and _pushed_, cracking the slab of stone right down the middle before spreading her hands apart to move the resulting halves four paces away from each other.

Once more, her new companions shied, regarding her and her handiwork with a slack-jawed, cautious, disbelieving respect.

"Insane," Marco mumbled hollowly. "Aliens trying to take over, being able to turn into animals, and now a girl who can break stone with her mind. When does it all end?"

(Alice has got nothing on us, that's for sure,) Tobias agreed.

"Eh, you'll get used to it," Toph airily dismissed with a wave of her left hand as she turned to face them again.

"I'm sure we will," an impressed Jake replied. "We've certainly become used to a lot of other totally crazy things-more or less," he added dryly. "But anyway, now that you've explained to us and shown us about earthbending, we're going to demonstrate what morphing is-and an Andalite too."

"Okay," the blind girl responded uncertainly.

"Back to where we left off Ax," Jake told the weird boy.

"Yes Prince Jake," Ax dutifully replied as he hesitantly returned to his position.

Turning his attention back to her, Boss Boy said, "Okay Toph. Like I said before, put your hand on Ax's side and _leave it_ there until he's done changing back. It might scare you, but he's friendly."

"Oh there's no need for that Boss Boy," Toph dismissed. "I'll be able to sense him changing just fine through the vibrations I pick up through my feet."

"Boss Boy," Marco sniggered gleefully. "Now does _that _ever fit you to a T Jake!" he teased.

Ignoring his friend, Boss Boy pensively replied, "Oh yeah, I forgot about Tobias telling us that about you. Still, feeling and touching Ax as he changes should help give you a more complete understanding of what's involved."

Warily, not knowing what to expect, Toph Bei Fong extended her right hand and lightly pressed it against Aximili's bare chest, her fingers splayed.

She felt his heartbeat, his pulse, the warmth of his body, smooth hairless skin and the ribs underneath it, felt them expand and fall back as he drew breath. It was all natural and expected, with nothing weird or scary about the boy at all.

"Are you ready?" Ax asked her.

"As I'll ever be," Toph replied.

And then he began.

Underneath her fingers, fur sprouted like grass. She heard his spine actually _creak _and felt it lengthen. And impossibly, her seismic sense told her that his feet were splitting, becoming hard and tough. They were turning into hooves!

"Yaaahhh!" she cried, snatching her hand back as shocked terror knifed through her.

As she stumbled back a couple paces, the earthbender's first impulse was to pull up a wall of rock and knock Ax as far away from her as she could.

But as she threw out her hands, palms facing down, and began to tug with her jing, she "heard" Tobias frantically shout (NO TOPH! It's okay!)

"Calm down Toph! I know it feels weird, and even scary, but it's all right!" Cassie urged her.

It took a few seconds for the blind girl's wildly beating heart to slow down, and it also took a lot of willpower on her part to throttle the instinctive and understandable impulse to bombard this Ax with boulders.

Slowly, she pushed the ridge of stone back down into its original position, forcing herself to take a couple of deep breaths and _try_ to steady her nerves. Now she knew how these guys had felt witnessing her earthbend.

She knew a momentary, terrible sensation that she'd lost her marbles, that she was hallucinating, that this was _not_ happening, that none of this had ever happened, that soon she'd wake up back at her place in Yu Dao after foolishly deciding to try some cactus juice (or being tricked into doing it), or in one of its hospitals after a severe illness or being struck by lightning or an assassination attempt or having a tree branch fall on her noggin.

She _**so**_ did not want to approach Ax and place her hand on him as he transformed again. But she had to!

Screwing up her courage, every hair on her nape and arms standing up, Toph placed her palm back on Ax's now furry form.

His arms became more slender, weaker, and Toph heard a growling, pulling sound as an actual tail began to appear. A pair of front legs, slender and strong like what his back pair was becoming, began to grow from his chest.

She felt additional ribs develop underneath her hand, and to her shock, now felt **three **hearts beating in the increasingly deer-like body! Oh Tu Gong, how could that be!

It was crazy, extraordinary, mesmerizing, gross, creepy, and terrifying all at once. Toph felt both her face and guts twist in horror.

She was trembling. She wanted to scream. She wanted to pummel this thing, bury it with stones. She wanted to run like the wind.

But Toph was also someone who knew a thing or two about courage and self-control. And this time, even when Ax fell forward onto his front legs with an almighty jerk, she managed to keep from removing her hand.

When it was done, the blind earthbender all too gladly backed away. Then, like how a rat carefully sniffs and delicately nibbles at an unknown food, or a sperm whale cow emits slow, knocking sonar clicks in the blackness of the deep sea and interprets the results as they return through her inner ears, Toph Bei Fong assessed Ax's true form with her seismic sense.

Clearly noticing her posture and putting two and two together, Cassie whispered to the others in amazement, "She's actually doing it. She's getting a sense of Ax and his shape through the ground, just like a spider in its web!"

"This is un-freaking-real," Marco commented. "Like being stuck in an episode of The Twilight Zone."

"Or an issue of Marvel Comics," Jake said knowingly.

The earthbending prodigy could've easily said the same thing as she sent several light waves of bending outward instead of her normal one or two. It was her equivalent of staring.

Aximili was now a strongly muscled combination between a person and an antelope, with four running legs and a human torso with a pair of slender arms and hands with too many fingers. He now had a long, supple, curved tail, ending in a great blade shaped like a rice farmer's scythe-and from what she could tell, every bit as sharp. Definitely a weapon.

His head was like that of no other creature she'd ever heard of or encountered during her time with the Gaang. It had not one, but two pairs of eyes, one in the face, the other on top of a pair of long, flexible, hornlike structures that grew from the top of the head and now turned restlessly.

Through her soles, she could feel the beating of three powerful hearts. His demeanor was similar to that of an ostrich-horse, rabbit-roo, musk deer, or any other large herbivore. Alert. Watchful. Scrutinizing.

So this was an Andalite, and oh Tu Gong, was it ever bizarre!

Yet, now that the initial shock had passed, she didn't feel scared of Ax any longer.

Not only had he done nothing to harm her, there was just something about him that put her at ease. He seemed...well, honorable, kind, warm, even like an old friend. Somewhat like Iroh.

When it came to facial features, Toph generally had to rely more on direct touch than her bending to get a clear picture.

"Um, Antelope Boy, is it all right with you if I use my hands to get a better idea of your body's finer details? I'll be gentle and try not to gouge anything," she added by way of reassurance.

(I am fine with this,) he silently replied in her head, making her startle slightly. (Just be very careful if you touch my tail blade, for it is quite sharp and I would not want you to cut yourself on it.)

"So you talk with your thoughts too, huh, Antelope Boy? Anyway, thanks for the heads up."

Carefully and considerately, Toph ran both her hands across Ax's body, learning and discovering more. Each of his hands had seven slim fingers, and a fairly weak grip.

His tail was all dense muscle, sturdy and lithe. And his tail blade was indeed an impressive thing, with a point as sharp as a dagger, and a prominent edge which felt sharp enough underneath her wary touch to cut oak-ash bark as cleanly as a dao sword.

"I'm sure glad you're one of the good guys," she muttered.

But most astonishing of all was Antelope Boy's face. Not only did he have an extra pair of eyes on stalks, he had three vertical, fleshy slits for nostrils, and no mouth! Not even the trace of one!

"You-you don't have a mouth!" she cried in surprise. "But...how do you even eat then!"

(We Andalites feed through our hooves,) he replied. (We take in grass as we walk and run about.)

Toph blinked. "Whoa."

"Not to be rude here," Boss Boy interrupted, "but you should probably save your questions about Ax for later Toph."

"Why?" she growled back.

"Because it's vital that you know more about the _other _aliens that are also here on Earth," he replied. "About the Yeerks."

"And they aren't exactly the sweet type either," Marco grimly chimed in.

She could feel the hatred rolling off of him as he spoke.

And the purest kind of fear.

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**As always, reviews are much appreciated, and a deep Thank You to those who have already done so!**


	7. Chapter 7

"Oh, those guys," Toph nodded in understanding. "The Ellimist told me a little bit about them before sending me to your 'Earth' world."

"How much did he tell you exactly?" Cassie asked. "You know, so we can simply fill in any gaps."

"Very little," Toph admitted. "He only told me that the Yeerks were intelligent, that they were secretly taking over your planet-whatever _that_ is-and that you were the only people who were fighting back against them."

"I see," Jake said. "Anyway, first of all Toph, do you know what a slug is?"

"Of course I do," she said. "I sense them literally all the time whenever I'm outside back home-and I have here as well."

"Okay, then imagine a slug about as long as your hand. That's what a Yeerk is like."

"Gross!" she spat out in revulsion.

"Very gross," he concurred. "But that's nothing compared to what they do to people. They're parasites, like leeches or biting flies-you have those on your world, don't you?"

"Yeah, we do. Go on," she said.

"But instead of drinking your blood or living in your insides, they enter your skull, wrap around your brain, and utterly control you. Every movement you make, every word you speak, is decided by the Yeerk alone."

The earthbender felt her jaw fall open in shock, her eyes widening as a frigid knife of fear pierced her.

"You guys aren't laughing," Toph said. "This has to be a very sick joke, so why isn't anyone laughing?"

"Because it's all too real," Marco replied, his voice severe. "And the Yeerks are no laughing matter."

And indeed, while Toph's intellect told her one thing, her ears and feet told her quite another.

The level of agitation in the group's demeanor, their stance, heartbeats, and their muscles all combined to affect Toph to an extent that shocked her. Through the stone, their fear and contempt was transmitted to her, and she realized, _Oh by Oma and Shu, they truly __have__ seen and dealt with these Yeerks!_

A memory from her travels with the Gaang through the Fire rose up in her mind, awful and dark.

"It's just like bloodbending," she said softly.

"Bloodbending?" Cassie repeated in confusion.

(Uh, come again?) Hawk Boy asked.

"Okay, remember how I told you guys that there are people in my world who can control water in any of its forms?"

"Yeah." Rachel said while the others nodded.

"Well, while I was traveling through the Fire Nation with Aang, the current Avatar, as his earthbending teacher-it's a really long story-we came across this old witchy-type woman called Hama in one village, who was a really powerful waterbender."

"Anyhow, she'd formerly been imprisoned by the Fire Nation for decades, but she figured out in the jail one day that since all living things contain water, she could move and influence the water inside an animal's body to make it move around however she wanted."

Cassie gasped. "You mean this Hama-Oh. My God!"

"That's pretty horrifying," Tough Girl said.

She felt Marco nod.

(And let me guess, it didn't take long until she used this bloodbending technique on the most advanced animals of all,) Tobias proposed dryly.

Toph nodded herself. "And that's how she escaped the clink of course. But to make a long story short, bloodbending seems to only really work under a full moon-"

"Heh, like a werewolf transformation," Marco said in amusement.

"and Hama began to take revenge by imprisoning Fire Nation citizens herself with the ability. Well, when we came along, my friend and Team Mom Katara, who's also a great waterbender, she found out about what Hama could do, and Hama tried to persuade her to be like her pupil and become a bloodbender too so they can deal out some justice against the evil Fire Nation once a month."

"Katara however, sees Hama and this bloodbending for how messed up and sick they truly are, and so Hama forced Katara to use it anyway to fight her in a sort of bloodbending duel, and then later to keep Aang and her brother Sokka from stabbing her or each other after Hama got control of them. Well, in the end Katara got the upper hand, and Hama was taken away to be imprisoned herself."

"Good for Katara," Cassie said approvingly. "Two wrongs should never make a right."

(Were you ever subjected to this bloodbending ability yourself?) Ax asked.

"No," Toph shaking her head, "at least, not on that night."

"What do you mean, 'not on that night?'" Rachel said curiously.

The earthbender hesitated a bit before saying, "A few months later, during a full moon-I can tell from the way it pulls at the earth you know-I asked Katara to perform bloodbending on me, because I was really curious to know just what it felt like to have happen to you. Sugar Queen really, _really _didn't want to do it, saying she was not going to do something so vile and creepy to her best friend, blah blah blah. But after a while, I persuaded her, although she only did it to my right arm below the elbow."

"What did _that _feel like?" Jake asked in amazement.

"And what did she make you do?" Cassie chimed in.

"It really was creepy," Toph said simply. "My arm just felt all tense and swollen all of a sudden, and as much as I tried to fight it, it wouldn't obey me. It moved in the direction Katara's hands made it move."

"Sugar Queen tried to make it more of a silly, playful event than anything else," the young earthbender went on, "making me lightly smack my cheek a few times, wave back to her, scratch my butt, cover my face with my hand. Still, it was disturbing on so many levels, having even just a part of me under somebody else's control like that...even if she was my friend."

"The Yeerks are nobody's friends, I can say that much," Rachel growled. "And with us the feeling's mutual."

(When this Hama had your two male companions under the control of her bloodbending ability, how much control did they retain over their own bodies, if any?) Antelope Boy inquired.

"They told me later that they could still cry out and speak, but other than that they might as well have been that creepy woman's puppets," she shuddered. "And _**that**_ is what these Yeerk things are like?"

"Even worse," Jake said. "At least your friends still could speak when they wanted while being bloodbended. You don't just become the Yeerk's puppet, but its slave Toph." His voice then became noticeably subdued, even haunted. "And I should know, because it's happened to me once."

"And me," Cassie added.

Dear Tu Gong...

"Good Oma, what was it like?"

"Nightmarish," Jake said simply. "Totally nightmarish. No matter how much you struggle and curse, you can't move a finger, take a step, blink or turn your head unless the Yeerk wrapped around your brain feels like doing so. You can still hear, taste, understand speech, and sense everything that's going on you, but now the Yeerk calls the shots, speaks with your voice, says the same sort of things you'd say, walks with your gait. You're the ship and it's the pilot."

Toph was equal parts sickened, appalled, and horrified. She felt her body sag and her jaw hang. To be in such a state, a prisoner in your own body, unable to call for help, talk freely, tell your friends or parents you loved them, reduced to a living carriage...

"And as horrendous as that is already," Marco added, "the Yeerk can also sense your thoughts and go through your memories, just like your mind was one great big library. Your experiences, your skills, the relationships you have, your favorite activities, things about your job...the Yeerk can get to them, analyze them-and exploit them."

This was far worse than bloodbending, a thousand times worse, and it made Toph's flesh creep. This level of domination, the abhorrence of it, such a violation of free will, shook her profoundly, was beyond both her capacity and desire to comprehend.

"So, if I was taken over by one of these slugs, does that mean it could force _me_ to earthbend against my will too?" she asked, voice tinged with shock.

"Absolutely," Cassie told her. "It could not only force you to earthbend, but to use your powers against your family, your friends, everybody and anybody who's close to you, cares for you."

A nauseating image (of sorts) flashed through Toph's mind, of being nothing more than a prisoner in her own skull and silently, helplessly shrieking out as the imaginary Yeerk coolly _pushed _outward with her own hands, sending two great slabs of bedrock outward to smash her defenseless, uncomprehending parents into a stone wall with a terrible impact that resonated through both her ears and soles...and accompanied by the sickening crunch of their ribcages and hips being mashed flat. And if what they'd just said was any indication, the Yeerk wouldn't even allow her to weep.

"You say these Yeerks are like big slugs. How exactly do they get into people's heads in the first place?"

"We've actually witnessed it," Tough Girl told her. "They bring people to a huge, secret, underground complex called a Yeerk pool. It's like-like a huge underground lake, except it contains a substance that's almost like liquid mud instead of water, which thousands of Yeerks swim in. Now there are these two long steel piers that go out into this lake. What happens there is that a pair of infested Hork-Bajir drag a guy or gal-"

"Hold up," Toph said, raising her hand. "What exactly is a Ho...rrr...kkk-Ba...hee...rrr?"

Through her soles, the earthbender felt everybody's hearts beat just a bit faster, and Tough Girl adopt a somewhat chagrined stance.

(Imagine a cross between a man and a big lizard that's three times your height, walks on two legs, and is covered in loads of extremely sharp blades,) Tobias explained. (That's a Hork-Bajir. They're actually pretty good-natured simpletons when free, but if they have a Yeerk in their head, _Watch. Out!_)

"Thanks for the assistance Tobias," Tough Girl told him, with a distinctly warm note to her speech. Well, well, she had a thing for Hawk Boy!

"But like I said, what they do is drag a person out to the end of one of the piers, kick their legs out from under them, and force their head sideways into the sludge. And while they scream and thrash and buck, one of the Yeerks in the pool swims over and squeezes into one of their ears. It digs and burrows its way right into their skull, then spreads around and basically links into their brain. The Hork-Bajir pull the person back up out of the liquid...and then that's it," she lightly shrugged. "That person is now a Controller, a slave to the Yeerk."

"That's what we call any creature that's, well, controlled by a Yeerk," Cassie supplied. "They've already enslaved entire species like the Hork-Bajir Tobias told you about, and are now working on us."

"How many humans do you think they're controlling right now?" the blind girl asked.

"Probably around 25, 000 people at this point," Marco estimated. "And that's just a guess for our local area alone."

Now the enormity of their battle was sinking in, and the fearful odds.

"Wow. No wonder the Ellimist sent me to help you guys out."

(We definitely appreciate any help we can get,) Tobias said dryly.

"My brother is already one of them," Jake told her.

"So is my mother," Marco said, and she could feel his bitterness and torment.

"Wow, I'm really sorry," Toph told them sympathetically. "Spirits, I wish I could do something to help."

Marco snorted. "There's nothing you can do. But we _will _free them, one way or the other-and make those filthy slugs pay," he darkly vowed.

Jake nodded with hesitant conviction. "We'll take them back, set my brother free again."

"And that is why we have to be so cautious Toph," Cassie told her. "Anyone can be a Controller, no matter how nice or familiar they are to you, no matter how normal they act. We have to always be on our guard, because all it would take is just one little mistake and we'd all end up like Jake's brother-or even dead."

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**As always, practice the two R's. Reviews are the only reward I can receive.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Uh, yeah, here's the latest chapter.**

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"And then there would be no hope left," Toph said soberly, simply.

"None," Cassie said quietly. "Our entire species would be helpless tools for the Yeerks."

"So what do you think, Toph?" Jake asked her, tone gentle and expectant. "Now that you know everything about the Yeerks and what the stakes are, do you want to fight alongside us? It's your call."

In the cooling air of evening, Toph Bei Fong bent a stool of earth out of the ravine bottom and sat on it, her thoughts uncertain, weighing the pros and cons.

It didn't take very long for her to make her mind up, and a smirk twisted across her features.

"A new world, a new mission, new pals, new team, new enemies, a new cause, new rules, but the same story as before," she said with a grin. "Boss Boy, The Blind Bandit would be delighted to help you kick some Yeerk butt!" she declared as she stood up.

"It's insanely dangerous," Marco sternly cautioned.

"Well I'm someone who laughs in the face of danger, and kicks it to the side of the road."

Tough Girl laughed. "You know Toph, I think you and I are going to be soulmates."

"Then welcome aboard," Boss Boy replied as he extended his arm in her direction.

The gesture confused her, and Toph cocked her head in puzzlement for a few moments. Her mom had told the blind earthbender that whenever a guy, especially one who was older or of higher rank than she, greeted her, she must respond in kind and right away.

So, uncertainly, Toph grinned and extended her own right arm in the same sort of salute Boss Boy seemed to be giving.

At that Marco started sputtering with laughter.

"What's so funny?" she snapped, rounding on him.

"Nothing, but it's pretty obvious that you've never come across a handshake before," he chortled in reply.

"Jake, maybe you'd be better off just bowing," Cassie recommended.

He did so, and as much as she disdained formalities, Toph bowed back.

"Well, that settles it," Marco said. "Welcome to the team miss."

"Look guys, I don't know about you," Tough Girl said hurriedly, "but I've definitely got to leave. Believe it or not, I've got to find time for schoolwork," she mentioned to Toph, a slightly wry note to her words.

"Hey, you've gotta keep up appearances."

"And keep from getting grounded," Marco added knowingly.

"Wake up, brush our teeth, go to school, eat lunch, fight the Yeerks, go home, repeat," Cassie said wryly.

"Well, before we all go home, what should we do about finding a place for Toph to stay for the night?" Boss Boy asked.

"Hey, I'm perfectly fine here," she assured him. "I'll just sleep in that cave."

(On solid rock? You sure about that Toph?) Tobias asked in concern.

"Plus, it's fall right now," Tough Girl added. "It'll be pretty chilly out here."

(And you have neither food nor water either,) Ax pointed out.

"There's a stream of water here, isn't there?"

"But Toph, it's muddy and filthy and slow-moving," Cassie said. "I definitely wouldn't drink from it."

"You guys do know I'm an earthbender, right?" she sighed in exasperation. "I can remove the silt from the water before I drink, and mould the stone underneath me so it fits my body like a glove."

(I have a suggestion,) Ax the Antelope Boy proposed, catching everyone's attention.

"What is it Ax?" Boss Boy asked.

(I know of a similar cave to this near another creek. This creek is spring-fed, which means that even in these drought conditions it will be reliable as a source of clear, flowing water, and should be sufficiently free of disease-causing pathogens due to having already been filtered through sediments. It is also reasonably close to Cassie's home, which will facilitate delivery of food and clothing, and partly hidden by vegetation.)

"What do you think Toph? Like the sound of it? Or would you like to sleep in Cassie's barn instead?" Jake asked her.

"Personally, I actually prefer sleeping against the earth and stone," the blind girl replied. "It's just so much a part of who I am and what I am as an earthbender that it's not uncomfortable for me at all. And I did it all the time when traveling with Aang."

"There's something really beautiful about that relationship," Cassie said wistfully.

"As for this other cave Antelope Boy's talking about, I guess it's as good a place as any for me to call home for the moment," she shrugged.

"Then let's get going," Jake said.

Marco, Rachel, and Boss Boy all left to go home to their families. Toph sure hoped they didn't/wouldn't get into trouble because of her.

Before he left though, Jake made her another offer.

"There's something I just want to make perfectly clear Toph," he told her. "As we've told you, the Yeerks are powerful and extremely dangerous."

"So how do you fight them then? Especially if you don't have any bending ability?"

"Let's just say that Ax isn't the only one of us who can morph," Jake responded. "We all can change into animals to spy on the Yeerks, fight them, mess up their plans-and so could you, if you want to."

"Really? I could do this?" Toph gasped in amazement. "Turn into an animal and whomp butt? Now that would _rule!_"

"Yes," Boss Boy answered. "Any animal you touched, of any size, you'd be able to become. But also keep in mind that while in morph, you would be unable to use your earthbending."

Now that dampened her enthusiasm considerably. Not being able to use her seismic sense or fight in the way she knew best was a daunting, worrisome prospect indeed. It felt like being told she'd have to fight naked.

But on the other hand, she would have some awesome _natural _weapons at her disposal with this morphing power, teeth and claws and venom and crushing feet. And she'd get to have the experience of actual vision too, which was certainly an intriguing and exciting prospect.

Sensing her vacillation, Jake said, "You don't have to make the decision right now. Tomorrow evening I'm going to bring this special machine, a morphing cube, which will give you the power to morph when you touch it."

"Sweetness," she grinned. "I can't wait!"

"Well, just sleep on it for the night, think it over. It's a big deal after all."

"Very big," she agreed.

Then Boss Boy had bowed to her, turned, and trotted off with the other two.

With Antelope Boy leading the way, it took about fifteen minutes to reach the cave he'd spoken of.

The cave was in a small but open gorge, extending about a little more than six paces deep into one of its walls, and was about twice as wide inside. Its mouth, partly screened by long grass, was about the span of a man's arms in width, with its upper lip about a little higher than her head. Inside, the cave ceiling was a lot higher, about the height of Bosco when he reared, maybe a little taller.

The floor was composed of soil, dry and fairly well compacted, and the place had a mild, musty smell to it, a scent of richness and mold. She liked it.

"Wow. This is perfect Antelope Boy," she said approvingly. "Almost like this cave was made for me."

(Perhaps it was,) Hawk Boy silently, cryptically commented from his perch on a boulder near the cave mouth, and Toph briefly felt something unspoken pass between him and Ax as they shifted to glance at each other.

Toph's brow knit in puzzlement for a moment, but then she dismissed it.

"You sure you don't want to come back to the farm with me Toph?" Cassie pressed. "I hate to think of you having to sleep out in a cave in the woods."

The earthbender compressed her lips and snorted in irritation.

"I'll be _fine_, Sunshine," she insisted. "I truly don't mind it."

"Well if you don't want to sleep in our barn, you should at least have a blanket or sleeping bag to keep warm in here."

"That would be great Sunshine," she answered appreciatively. "And some food too," she added, aware of her pinched gut. "Heh, in fact I was actually on my way to eat dinner when the Ellimist decided to draft me for this little task of his," she mentioned, her lips twisting up in a grin at the irony and weirdness of it all.

Antelope Boy, who had also entered the cave, asked, (I am curious to know Toph, did the Ellimist request any specific task of you during your time with us, or did he simply want you to fight alongside our group?)

"It was kind of both, actually," she replied as she sat down, thoughtful as she crossed her legs in front of her. "He wanted me to help fight the Yeerks with you, yeah, but he mostly sent me here because he wanted me to help Rachel in some sort of way."

At that, Hawk Boy, who had been preening himself, snapped alert.

(Help Rachel?) he repeated. (You mean as she's going to be in some future trouble too deep to get herself out of and so the Ellimist sent you here to fix that?)

"Exactly," she nodded.

(Did he say what kind of trouble it was? Being taken by a Yeerk, dying in an accident, getting killed in battle?)

The earthbender opened her mouth to respond-and then hesitated. She seemed to remember that the Ellimist had told her an exact reason for why she was involved with Tough Girl, but now she couldn't recall it anymore, and that wasn't like her to do that.

"Is something wrong Toph?" Cassie asked in concern.

"Yeah, and it's because I don't _know_," she responded in frustration, throwing up her hands. "He told me just a few hours ago what would happen to Tough Girl, but for some reason I can't remember it! It's like it's locked in a box in my mind and I don't have the key! I wish I could tell you guys," she sighed, feeling oddly guilty. "I really do."

"Hey, it's okay," Cassie gently assured her. "Not your fault."

(Yeah,) Hawk Boy agreed. (The Ellimist loves to pull that sort of crap on a regular basis.)

Again, she felt something pass between the remaining three Animorphs, something disappointed and bitter and helpless. It made her slightly suspicious.

"Anyway," Cassie said, breaking the silence, "what sort of things do you like to eat Toph, and is there any special way you like them cooked?"

"I'll eat most anything. I like meat and fish the best, but rice is good too, and I certainly don't mind fruit. Noodles, bread, buns, vegetables, nuts. As for I like it cooked, that doesn't really matter much either: stir-fried, stewed, steamed, fresh, it's all good."

She felt Cassie nod her head. "I'll bring you some food later with the blanket then, after my parents are asleep."

"Thanks Sunshine. That's so nice of you," she smiled.

"You're quite welcome," Cassie said as she turned, and then left the cave to go home herself.

Now it was just Hawk Boy and Ax in the cave with her.

"Aren't you two going to go back to your homes as well?" she asked curiously.

(Well, when it comes to Ax-man and I, we're both actually stuck with the forest as our home for the time being.)

Antelope Boy nodded. (While I have dug out a traditional Andalite dwelling known as a scoop in this forest, and Tobias roosts in a certain tree in his territory, we are still both fully able to live and sleep wherever we choose in these woodlands.)

"You know, you guys are free to go back and sleep where you normally do in these woods," Toph told them as she dug in her left ear. "I'll be able to sense when Cassie's coming from her footsteps, so don't worry."

(I'm sure you can,) Hawk Boy replied. (But we've got nothing else to do either, and we'd like to get to know you better. Wouldn't we, Ax-man?)

(Of course,) the young Andalite agreed. (Plus, if you become cold Toph, my body heat can keep you comfortable until Cassie arrives with your blanket.)

"Well, considering that I've been sent to an entirely different world with no benders and weird animals, I'll admit I wouldn't mind some company for at least the first few nights," she replied. "So I appreciate you two offering to stay here with me," she smiled.

"And besides, I'd also like to 'see' you two do a few more morphs," she added in excitement.

(Our pleasure,) Tobias obligingly replied.

It was an extraordinary spectacle, with Hawk Boy morphing from hawk to horse, hawk to human, hawk to cockroach, to rabbit, to mountain goat, and back to hawk. Ax then morphed into a skunk, a bird called a harrier, a lobster, a cheetah, a gull, a human as Toph regarded them with open mouthed wonder, fingers lightly resting on their shifting bodies.

Then, once that show was over, with his hooves and tail blade Antelope Boy dug a shallow depression in the dirt of the cave floor and bedded down to relax. Tobias asked her if she could bend a small ledge out from the cave wall for him to roost on, laughing lightly at the craziness of it.

And Toph was happy to oblige. All it took was a mild _pull_, and Hawk Boy had a place to safely rest his talons.

Then, as she listened attentively, the two oddest members of the Animorphs told more about their secret guerilla war.

About how it began, about the spaceship in the abandoned construction site.

About Elfangor, Antelope Boy's big brother, Andalites in general, and the morphing cube he used to give the human race one last, desperate hope.

About how their most terrible enemy and head of the invasion of Earth, the Andalite-Controller Visser Three, had then arrived, and literally eaten the crippled Elfangor alive.

About the Hork-Bajir and the Taxxons, and what a hellish, terrible place the Yeerk pool they guarded truly was. About Tom and Eva.

How Hawk Boy had become trapped as a hawk, and then later regained the ability to morph, including into his former human self, which totally blew Toph's mind.

About all the battles, the blood, terror, and desperation.

About their defeats and triumphs.

And about hope.

It was a lot to take in and deal with, and now Toph knew exactly what Marco had meant when he said how insane it all was.

And then it was her turn to divulge more about herself and her role in ending a century-long war.

She told them about her life in Gaoling, her parents, about the badgermoles and Earth Rumbles.

She told them about the Four Nations and the Avatar, how they were the spiritual incarnation of the world itself, and the only person who could bend all four of the elements.

She told them about Aang and how he'd sought her out as his earthbending teacher, about Appa, Katara, Sokka, Suki, and Momo.

She told them about the Fire Nation-Tobias found both their firebending abilities and use of hawks as message carriers especially intriguing-and its march of conquest, not so very different from the Yeerks, about Fire Lord Ozai and his spawn, Zuko and Azula.

She showed them the bracelet of space metal which adorned her right arm as proof of her great adventure.

And she told them how in the end, under the fateful comet, they'd managed to win the day, and Aang had brought peace and balance back to the world-which he couldn't have done without her of course.

That was a lot for Ax and Hawk Boy to take in too. They were awed, amazed, flabbergasted by what she'd done. What she could do. What it meant for the Yeerk hordes, the promise it held for their own war.

She was more than happy to soak in and accept both their admiration and recognition of her complete awesomeness as the universe's greatest earthbender.

In time though, fatigue set in for them all, and her eyelids heavy, the blind girl stood and paced over to Antelope Boy, drowsily resting with his tail resting limp in the dirt.

She removed the peaked headpiece of stiff cloth that held her hair in its customary bun, allowing her hair to pour down almost to the small of her back. Then she untied the knot which secured her sash to loosen and free up her tunic, which she then slipped over her head and tossed aside.

Her undershirt went next, leaving the master earthbender in just her breast bindings from the waist up.

That was enough exposed skin for her purposes.

Despite his bizarre form and formidable weapon, she sat down alongside Ax's furry back and ran her fingers through her hair for a minute or two, removing the pieces of stick and burrs and seeds which had become caught in her bun while traveling through the forest.

She then turned on her left side in the dirt, pressing her own back against his to share warmth.

Through her body and the soil, she could feel Antelope Boy's stalk eyes twist back to look at her, and his heartbeats change in a way that indicated he was charmed and even a little touched by her actions, that she trusted him that much already.

"Good night," she told them in her mother tongue.

They both knew what she meant though.

(Good night Toph,) Tobias told her from the ledge, feathers fluffed against the chill.

(Good night,) Ax said in her head.

A full mind and an empty belly is not a very good combination for falling asleep. And Toph sure had an awful lot to mull over in that cave. But at last, she let go and slipped into dreamland.

She was woken up two different times that night.

The first was about an hour before midnight, when the earthbender snapped awake after feeling the vibrations of something rapidly running towards the cave, a big doglike animal pounding over the dirt at a quick canter. She opened her sightless eyes and laid there for a few moments in the chilly air.

Ax raised his head and stirred as she abruptly stood up, asking (What is it Toph? Is there something wrong? Do you need to expel bodily waste?)

"None of the above," she answered as she shook her head, her voice now causing Tobias to wake. Attentively analyzing the vibrations, she informed them, "There's some sort of wolf headed this way, and with purpose too. Not that I'm exactly worried."

(That would be Cassie in morph I'm betting,) Hawk Boy said, (bringing you a nice meal and a warm blanket.)

And indeed, Toph now sensed that the wolf was carrying a good-sized object made of cloth in its jaws.

(Hey there guys, it's me,) Cassie said as she ran up to the cave. (Brought you dinner and bedding Toph.)

She entered the cave and dropped the neatly folded blanket in front of the blind earthbender, panting vigorously.

(Whew!) Cassie puffed as she gave a long whine and opened her huge wolf jaws in a long, satisfied yawn. (Man, carrying a heavy horse blanket in your mouth while running through the woods for several miles sure does a number on the jaw muscles.) She yawned again, stretching them.

"Thanks for the room service Sunshine," Toph told her as she picked the blanket up. It _was_ fairly heavy, thick and quilted, smooth to the touch.

(It's a spare horse blanket from our barn,) Cassie explained. (It'll keep you nice and warm on nights like this. I sure hope you haven't gotten hypothermia or something while I've been gone.)

"Don't worry Sunshine," Toph assured her. "I've been sleeping next to Antelope Boy here," she said, nodding her head in his direction, "which kept me from getting too chilled. Still, I'm glad you brought this blanket."

(There's a Ziploc baggie for you in there too,) Cassie said, (with a banana, a dinner roll, and a chicken thigh inside.)

"Wow, you brought a regular feast Sunshine. Again, thanks."

(No problem. Hope you enjoy it. But now I've got to get back home to get a good sleep and especially before one of my parents wakes up and notices I'm missing,) Cassie said as she stretched her front legs and yawned once more before turning and leaving the cave. (Anyway, see you tomorrow morning!) she said as she loped off into the forest.

"You too, Sunshine!"

The bag Toph found inside the blanket when she unfolded it was made of a material like nothing she'd ever encountered. It was made of two connected sheets, each composed of a slick, stretchy substance, thin and yet amazingly tough, too tough for her to easily rip open.

There was a distinct, thick seam at the top of the bag, and she figured that was involved in opening it. When she pulled on both edges, her suspicion was confirmed, and she happily started in on the contents.

After putting the strange bag, the bone, and the peel in the furthest corner of the cave, Toph, full and satisfied, lay back down on its floor, gratefully pulled the blanket, thick and soft, over her stocky body, and fell asleep again.

The next time Toph awoke was several hours later, in the wee hours of the morning.

This time, it had nothing to do with vibrations.

All the master earthbender knew as she groggily regained awareness and opened her milky eyes was that it had been some type of noise in the distance. A cat owl perhaps?

Both Ax and Hawk Boy were still asleep, their breathing soft and peaceful.

Toph was on the verge of drifting off again what she heard it a second time, slashing through the chill night air.

At first she thought it was a woman or a girl being stabbed through the lungs, screaming through her own blood. Her heart pounded wildly like a drum, and her muscles became taut as cables from sheer fear.

She felt Antelope Boy immediately snap awake and alert himself at the chilling, throaty yell, leaping to his feet with his tail cocked and ears pricked.

Toph shoved off her blanket and sat bolt upright, listening with baited breath.

The screech came again, closer now, smashing the night's stillness like a stone through a window. It rang like the blow of a hammer against a steel drum, causing the blood to turn to ice in both her veins and Ax's.

There was a scraping of talons and a wild (Holy shit!) of surprise as Hawk Boy was jolted awake himself by the scream. She sensed him flaring his wings and getting ready to leap into the air before he got a grip and settled down, chanting (Just stay cool, just stay cool and stay put.)

"Great Shu, is somebody being stabbed to death out there?" Toph cried.

(Sure sounds like it, but no,) Hawk Boy shakily replied. (That's the cry of a _really _large cat-about as big as you Toph-called a cougar.)

Then the cougar screamed again, an icy yowl. Toph leapt to her feet and got into a horse stance, arms extended.

She could just feel the muffled, stealthy signature of the cat's paws at the limits of her seismic perception. If it came any closer she was going to block off the mouth of this cave faster than Snoozles could throw his boomerang on his best day.

All three of them stood silently, eyes wide and bodies stiff as boards.

Again, the demonic, blood-freezing scream rang through the forest. Toph could've wet herself at the sound.

(It's okay,) Hawk Boy assured her, trying to sound vaguely confident. (Even if you didn't have your bending ability, cougars usually make a point of staying away from people, and would much prefer to eat deer instead.)

"Well that still doesn't mean I enjoy having it _right here_ and listening to it scream!" she shot back half-frantically. "I mean that noise! Why does it have to make that horrible sound?"

As if it understood her words and took delight in scaring the pants off of her, the cougar gave another hellish, spine-tingling scream. She could feel Ax quivering.

(Tha-that's something female cougars d-do, to call for a mate,) Tobias replied.

"So this one must be female then?"

(You've got it. I've seen her before from time to time while flying, and a few other cats as well."

"Really? What are cougars like exactly Hawk Boy?"

(They are _amazing _hunters,) he replied simply. (Cougars bury their kills real good after eating, so other animals don't notice. Still, I know for a fact that at least twice this female-and keep in mind she doesn't weigh much more than you do-has killed these large deer called elk that had to be at least six times her weight. Just broke their necks, no problem.)

"Whoa," Toph said in amazement. "That is just unreal."

(They are extremely stealthy hunters as well,) Ax commented. (I have been attacked by a cougar myself once, and even with my stalk eyes it was so well hidden and so silent I did not notice it until it was already charging me at close range. Thankfully I successfully drove him away with a few slashes of my tail blade.)

(They are like living smoke,) Tobias confirmed as the cougar yowled again, as if in agreement. (One could be crouched in some scraggly brush just twelve feet from you-and you'd never know he was there unless he wanted you to.)

She was very impressed. "How fast can they run?"

(Oh, they can haul butt, believe me. The fact that one was able to catch up with Ax-man speaks for itself.)

(And not only are cougars fast,) Hawk Boy added, (but they are amazing jumpers. They can jump fifteen feet up into a tree from a sitting position-that's about three of you-and make leaps of twice that length when running.)

"Ten paces? In just one jump? That's unbelievable!"

The cat screamed for a mate again, this time from further away. The sound was like fingernails raking across the earthbender's soul. Yet, even as it repelled and terrified her, Toph found herself somehow drawn to the cry as well, and the powerful creature that made it.

The more Hawk Boy and Ax told her about these cougars, the more the big cats excited and impressed her, she realized.

(She's moving away, thank God,) Tobias mumbled in relief. (Maybe now we can all get back to sleep without having to listen to _that_ and worrying about becoming Purina Cougar Chow.)

Antelope Boy went back to his hollow and lay down once more, ears lightly held erect as he shut all four eyes.

Tobias settled back down on his ledge and tucked his head into the feathers of his back.

And Toph Bei Fong slid back down under the horse blanket, in contact with the earth she so esteemed.

But she stayed awake for a little while longer, thinking about cougars.

Powerful. Nimble. Amazing jumpers and hunters. Elusive beyond belief. Retractable claws and dagger fangs. Confidence and poise.

She made up her mind then.

After Jake came tomorrow to offer her the morphing power, which she would accept, she was going to have a cougar morph, one way or the other.

In the distance, very far away now, the female cougar's voice rang.

And like a child who's expecting a particularly cool present for their birthday, Toph grinned in the darkness.

* * *

**Once more, I'd really like to thank everyone who has left reviews for this fic and expressed how much they enjoy it. I must also add that while Toph is blind of course, she still experiences a change in awareness when waking up from sleep, which she would likely still associate with opening her eyes regardless of her inability to see.**

**Next chapter, Toph receives the Andalite's gift!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Well, as promised, here we are everyone. The chapter in which the best earthbender ever officially becomes a true Animorph.**

* * *

Having never known even a minute of sight in her fourteen years of life, Toph's dreams contained no images. They were composed of sounds and smells, touches and tastes, the reflections of ground vibrations.

Still, they could be every bit as vivid and fantastic as those of a sighted person.

She dreamed she was the ringmaster in an extraordinary circus filled with strange animals which could speak in your head, turn into other animals and even people. Some of the animals had actually _been_ people once, but could no longer change back.

Besides being the ringmaster in her dream, Toph was also a star attraction in her own right, wowing the crowd with displays of earth and metalbending, things that they knew nothing at all of, and indeed, terrified some of them.

After every show she visited the animals in their cages, where each one either did or told her something that profoundly amazed her, although she forgot it as soon as she went on to the next animal and the next revelation.

In the chill of dawn, curled in on herself under the horse blanket, she was woken by the calls of strange new birds, filtering into the cave mouth and then her ears. Groggily, she opened her eyes to be greeted by the same nothingness she knew in her sleep.

She was in no hurry to get out from under her blanket, and just listened to the dawn chorus, snug and secure as she relished the luxury of being able to stay in bed for once.

Here, there were no students, no responsibilities, no classes or obligations. No Penga. No Ho Tun. No Moo.

She wondered if the Ellimist had truly spoken the truth when he'd told her that he would and could bring her back in the same moment he'd taken her. He'd certainly done it several times with the Animorphs according to what Hawk and Antelope Boy had told her. Not that there was much she could do about it either way.

Nearby, she felt and heard the latter stir and get to his feet.

"Where you going Antelope Boy?" she asked drowsily as he headed towards the cave entrance.

He stopped for a moment, and through her hands Toph felt his freaky stalk eyes turn back towards her as he replied, (I am going out to graze and exercise myself by running.)

"But how can you eat grass without a mou...oh yeah, through your hooves," she sleepily muttered. "Well, enjoy your breakfast. See you later."

(You as well Toph.)

At the mouth of the cave, the Andalite halted again, apparently having thought of something. (There is a location in this forest where Tobias has told me a simple human dwelling once stood at least ninety Earthly years ago. During their time inhabiting the dwelling, that family planted several peach trees that still live and produce fruit. After I feed, would you like me to bring back some of the ripe fruit for your own sustenance?)

"Sounds perfect," she replied. "Thanks a lot Antelope Boy."

(I shall return in about an Earthly hour then,) he told her before cantering off. (Then perhaps you can join me for today's episode of Teletubbies and then Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.)

"Tele-what?"

Episode? Mr. Rogers? What sorts of things were these now?

Like his smaller relations, Tobias was already awake in response to the growing light (whatever that was), preening his plumage.

(See ya Ax-man,) he said as he delicately scratched at his neck with those fearsome talons.

(You as well Tobias.)

"So what are your plans for the day, Hawk Boy?" Toph asked.

(Well, when it gets light enough I'm going to go back to my meadow and go hunting for some breakfast of my own,) he responded. (Mice, ground squirrels, chipmunks, a muskrat or rabbit. Then I'll probably go flying, either to keep tabs on what the Yeerks are up to or just for the fun of it, maybe visit Ax in his scoop.)

(It's too bad you don't have a fire or a way to make one,) he said regretfully. (Otherwise I could kill you something big like a rabbit or duck, bring it back, morph human and dress it out, then roast it for you.)

"Yeah," she sighed wistfully. "I'd better make myself a fire pit and gather some firewood today for the future. One of you sighted folks will have to actually _make_ the fire for me though, by striking steel or something."

_Too bad Zuko isn't here_, she thought.

(Sounds like a good plan,) Hawk Boy agreed.

Suddenly he broke out laughing.

"What? What's so funny?" she asked in confusion.

(Sorry, but it's your hair,) he replied in amusement. (You've got a serious case of bed head mam, a real porcupine look going there.)

"Heh, I guess I do," Toph said as he reached back and felt of her bristly coiffure, part mop, part baby boarcupine. "I don't take it out of its bun all that often, so it tends to more or less try to stay in that position whenever the headband comes off."

(You know Toph, I'm almost done preening. And now I can see there's still a fair amount of the tinier bits of bark, lichen, grit, things like that left in your hair from yesterday. Would it be okay if I morphed human and cleaned it out for you?)

She paused, indecisive. She'd gotten most of the coarse stuff out, which pricked and scratched the scalp, so she didn't really see any pressing need to clean out the rest.

Plus, she felt slightly discomfited at the idea of having Hawk Boy, who she still hardly knew, breaching her personal space to such a degree, even if he seemed trustworthy enough. She'd much rather choose Sunshine or Tough Girl to do it.

Still, it was a nice gesture on his part, and she guessed she didn't want to seem rude by rejecting it. And there was also a fly bite between her shoulders, swollen and itchy, that she had some trouble reaching to scratch.

"I guess I'm okay with that," she replied, stretching her arms as she sat up and got into a squatting position. "I've also got this big itchy fly bite between my shoulders that needs a good scratch, if you don't mind."

(Not at all. And yeah, bites there are the worst,) he commiserated as he took flight and then landed on the cave floor next to her.

Then he began to change again, and Toph felt his heartbeat slow down, his legs grow longer, his skull become big and globular, his wings shift into hands and organs shift around with a drawn-out chorus of slow grindings and abrupt crunching that made her skin crawl.

"Eww, that is such a nasty sound!" she cringed. How in Tu Gong's name was she going to cope with simply _listening _to the process when the time came for her to do it herself, far less doing it and feeling her body bend?

(Tell me about it. Not a fun thing to list-)

He was cut off by reaching the point where his head voice no longer worked, and it came out as an inarticulate, screeching drawl.

He waited until the transformation was complete before finishing, "Listen to. I'm just grateful beyond words that no pain is involved. I don't know how we'd be able to stand it if that was the case," he muttered as he kneeled down.

Toph shuffled on her hams so that her back was to him, extending her legs out in front of her.

"Now Hawk Boy," she sternly warned him as he took a sheaf of hair in his left hand, "this is all about just my hair and my upper back. Touch me anywhere else and there will be problems, ones that will involve earthbending, if you know what I mean."

"Hey, don't worry," he assured her. "Rachel would _definitely_ have a harsh word or two or probably three with me if she even _suspected_ me of so much as thinking impure thoughts about another girl, believe me."

"Hah, I knew you two had a thing." she grinned triumphantly as Tobias delicately plucked a bit of lichen from her hair.

She felt his pulse speed up and he shifted.

"Strange as the relationship is, we do," he wryly confirmed.

For a girl whose world was primarily made up of what she felt, the sensation of Hawk Boy's hands going through her hair, lightly plucking its roots and stimulating her scalp was utter bliss. There was no passion or desire involved, but certainly a soothing pleasure as she closed her eyes and rolled her head backward with a contented hum.

He scratched the place she'd indicated, and it was the most wonderful feeling. His nails were just the right length, and although he was a bit clumsy at it, he did a pretty good job, not too hard or too soft. It sent a warm shiver up her spine, and she arched her back into it, a purring "Mmmm," of contentment escaping her lips.

"Am I doing good?" Hawk Boy asked knowingly.

"Very good."

It took about twenty minutes for him to finish cleaning her tresses. Then he got to his feet, backed away, and changed back to his now normal hawk form before saying (See you later,) and flying off to go hunt.

With him gone, Toph paced out of the cave and went to the stream, where she kneeled and drank of the cool water, holding her hair out of the way as she did so.

After her thirst was quenched, she turned on her back and immersed the back of her head in the cool, brisk water of the creek, letting her hair float and drag in the gentle current for a few minutes as she scrubbed her scalp with her nails.

Her concession to personal hygiene done for the day, she sat back up and squeezed the water out of her hair. _Would be really nice to have a towel out here, _she thought.

There was a perfect slab of stone nearby, protruding from the soil at a shallow angle, and Toph strode over to it. She lay down on her back and spread her hair out in a fan shape behind her to dry, soaking up the morning sunlight.

It was there that Ax found her, three peaches held in his flimsy Andalite hands.

After greeting him, she sat up and happily accepted them for breakfast; even if Antelope Boy didn't so much hand them to her as fumblingly drop them in the earthbender's lap.

He offered to have her watch what seemed like some sort of magical box called a "TV set" with him, on which would play a "show" called "Teletubbies," which was about four baby-like beings who called themselves Dipsy, La-la, Tinky Winky, and Po and liked to give each other "Big hug!"

After that would be another one called "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," featuring a nice, warm middle-aged man who went on trips to interesting places in his community, got deliveries from a guy named Mr. McFeely, and showed you the lives of hand puppets in "The Neighborhood of Make Believe."

Toph couldn't wrap her mind around the weird concept of the "TV set" alone, and doubted such a thing would appeal to her. So she politely refused, telling Ax she'd have to get more familiar with the basics of this "Earth" first before she was ready to enjoy its weird entertainments. Besides, she had some work to do.

He understood, and left for his scoop, leaving Toph to eat her peaches.

After the fruit was eaten and the pits discarded, the blind girl went back inside the cave, pulled the blanket back over her, and slept in for about another hour and a half.

When she woke, she put her undershirt and tunic back on, secured it with the sash and tied it tightly. Then, using only her sense of touch, she arranged her hair back into its customary bun and put on the peaked headband to keep it there.

She spent the morning using her earthbending to make some alterations to the cave, _pulling _to make stone shelves and pegs in the walls that could be used to place or hang clothing, towels, or whatever things the rest of the Animorphs would bring to make her rustic life more comfortable over the next few days.

Not knowing how long it would be until the Ellimist came back for her, she bent a steeply diagonal shaft at the very back of the cave that was about four paces deep. It was about the diameter of a big man's thigh, the opening a couple chi above the floor of the cave. This would be her trash pit.

After stepping outside to get a sense of the prevailing wind, the earthbender walked downstream about twenty paces, and bent a large, wide stone outcrop out from the gorge wall at about a hand's length higher than her head. She bent a deep but narrow trench underneath, one that she could comfortably straddle. It would serve as a latrine.

Inside the cave, she bent a pace wide circle in the dirt, its lip at about ankle height. Deciding to kill two birds with one stone (and her lips curved in amusement at the ironic pun), she then bent a narrow shaft in the cave roof, as wide as her calf, using the resulting broken stone to line what would become her fire pit.

A fire of course, needed wood.

So Toph went out into the surrounding forest and spent a few hours gathering firewood, carrying bundles of large sticks and smaller logs back to the cave on her shoulder, placing them along one of the walls.

With her bending abilities, it was no problem at all to form stone axes to cut up logs that were too big to carry by hand, and form wedges to spilt sections of log lengthwise.

The effort of directing her jing and carrying wood on her shoulders made her breathe hard and sweat in the growing dry heat. This in turn, attracted biting flies and gnats.

The insects were a nuisance, and Toph often stopped to swat at them or shake her head in irritation. It was one of those moments when she badly wished she could see.

But there was a really odd thing the earthbender began to notice going on with the biting insects. Whenever they landed on her skin and bit her, they would drink of her blood for a few seconds, then suddenly jerk back and fly away in a wild, uncoordinated fashion, bumping into things.

Through her seismic sense, she often then felt them crash hard against the ground, buzz and kick crazily for a bit, and then go limp. Dead.

It wasn't long before the amazing realization came to the earthbender. Something in her blood made it lethally toxic to these Earth insects!

Now _that_ was bizarre. It also just further emphasized how different she was from the people who called this world home. But it was pretty awesome too, the idea that any insect which bit her would pay with its life for doing so.

She was also aware that it could work both ways though, and it made her a bit uneasy. So far everything she'd eaten in this new world hadn't harmed her. But would she be as lucky the next time she ate a new food, drank of a new beverage?

There was a very real chance that trying something which was perfectly fine for Boss Boy and his kind of people to eat could result in her vomiting all over, convulsing on the ground, or yes, dead as a moo-sow the day after the Lunar New Year celebrations. Probably not a big risk, granted, but she'd have to be careful, have only a tiny bit at a time first and wait to see what happened, at least until she gained the ability to morph herself this evening.

After gathering about half a cord of wood, which she stacked against one of the cave walls, the tired earthbender laid down on her back at the mouth of the cave, arms folded behind her head as thoughts raced through it.

What would it be like, to transform into something else? To feel the mind and desires of another creature alongside her own? To actually _**see**_ for the first time?

* * *

**Jake.**

There once was a time, not so long ago, when my life revolved around sports. Basketball, baseball, soccer, even tennis-I played and enjoyed them all.

Then this business with the Yeerks pulled the plug on all of that.

Now I get most of my exercise by sneaking out of the house as stealthily as I can, by running either towards or from armed Controllers as fast as my legs can carry me, by flying through the air, by engaging Hork-Bajir warriors in fights to the death, biting deep with my tiger fangs.

And that's why nowadays, I really look forward to my Phy. Ed. class every fourth period. Almost desperately, you could say.

For at least one hour, I can enjoy participating in sports again, pretend I'm back in a world where there are no Yeerks, where my brother doesn't have one in his skull, where I don't have to spill blood or make decisions that could get my friends or I brutally killed-or infested.

It can't last though.

Sooner or later the reality of our war has to intrude again. And so it was today, after gym class had ended.

Thankfully though, this time for once it was something that was both expected and wouldn't involve some insanely hazardous, life-threatening task. Little more than a serious discussion between Marco and me, really. Thank Christ.

We were both in the guy's locker room, toweling off after our respective showers and preparing to get dressed in our regular clothes again.

The other guys had already finished getting dressed and then eagerly left for the lunch line. I'll admit I was feeling somewhat hollow in my gut too, but I could certainly spare several minutes.

After doing a quick scan to make no one was around, Marco sat back down on the bench, drying his hair as he asked, "So Jake, you still want to go ahead with bringing our Chinese Daredevil girl the special machine after school?"

"Sure do," I replied as I pulled on my underwear. "Even with her bending ability, she'll probably need a few bugs and birds at the very least to get places during a typical mission."

Marco scoffed. "I'd hardly call any one of them typical," he droned, "especially when _he_ gets involved."

I nodded, but my mind was elsewhere.

As an Animorph, I've seen and experienced more than my fair share of utterly crazy stuff, to the point where it's almost become par for the course.

I've turned into a lobster, been to outer space, piloted a Bug fighter, had a Yeerk die in my head, met and befriended androids who were older than human civilization, flown on the wings of a peregrine falcon, and stood before Crayak himself, among countless other things.

But Toph and her ability to shatter and move dirt and stone with just her mind...yeah, that was weird even by my standards, primed as they were to cope with all sorts of craziness. It made mine reel, I can sure tell you. Not to say it wasn't completely kick-ass though, and I couldn't wait to see the expression on the faces of whichever Controllers had the crappy luck to go up against us during her first battle as a part of our team.

"Anyway Marco," I went, snapping back to the here and now, "what do you think of Toph as a part of the lineup?"

He hesitated for a bit. "Personally Jake, my impression of her is that while she's nice and everything, not to mention extremely cool, she's quite a bit like Rachel, someone who lives to fight and is headstrong to the max. She might not want to do what you ask or maybe even order," he cautioned. "In fact, to be honest Jake, she reminds me in some ways of Da-well, the first kid we tried this with."

He didn't exactly have to spell it out for me. That had been a complete disaster in every sense the word could be used.

"So do you think there's a chance she might...turn on us?"

"Pretty unlikely," Marco dismissed with a wave of his hand. "I mean, after all, she wasn't just fine with sleeping in a cave last night, but actually _eager_ to do so, like she was some sort of dwarf or troll. I doubt she'd be using her new power for criminal acts any time soon."

"Besides," he added, "David blamed us for wrecking his life, taking his parents away, making him homeless and forcing him to do all sorts of scary, traumatic stuff. And perhaps it wasn't without cause. But Toph won't be carrying that baggage in her dealings with us."

"Yeah, she's a clean slate. But are you saying her attitude could cause problems later on?"

"Maybe, maybe not," he replied, flipping his hand back and forth. "We still don't know her all that well, but she could turn out to be stubborn and overeager about at least some things. That's not to say I don't think she'll be an awesome addition though," he amended. "Plus, she seems very street smart to me, which is always good."

"And like we talked about before," I pointed out, "it's like that one rule on that Internet list of 'Things You Should Never Do in a Horror Movie.' You know, the one that advises that if you ever come across a strange or special weapon, take it."

Marco solemnly nodded. "Because if you don't, the monster or the bad guy will, and sooner or later the weapon _will_ be used. Far better you be the one to use it than the bad guy or the monster."

"On a more practical note," I said, changing the subject, "I've been wondering what we should do about providing for her needs, especially food and the clothing she'll need to blend in. Our lives are complicated enough without having to ferry food to her three times a day, and I can't exactly spare the cash needed to buy her a decent wardrobe."

"She could always visit Cassie's place for dinner I'll bet," Marco said thoughtfully as he stroked his chin. "After all, they've got a special place in their hearts for anyone or anything with a disability. Plus, if she ever got sick or ate something toxic, that would give her a safe place to get help and care. My Dad and Nora would probably be happy to have her over too. But that still leaves the question of breakfast and lunch, not to mention buying clothing."

"There's another issue too that I've been thinking about," I stated as I pulled my T-shirt over my head. "We've got no idea what sort of culture she originally came from, but I'm guessing it was _way_ less accommodating towards blind people than ours is today."

"Like I've seen in some parts of Mexico," Marco said, shaking his head. "It's a damn shame how they're basically left to fend for themselves."

"Yeah," I sighed dourly. "While I know Toph can get around just fine with her weird vibration sensing ability, probably has amazing hearing too, and is more than capable of taking care of herself, it would still be nice to get her hooked up with some of the services out there for the blind."

"Jake buddy, you do know that to do that, she needs to have an _adult_ caretaker, an address, a Social Security number, and a whole bunch of other things that at best would be impractical and impossible for us to get, and at worst blow our cover," Marco said pointedly.

"I know that," I nodded. "And maybe there's no way it can be done, at least not safely. Still, you can't say it wouldn't make her life and ours that much easier."

And then, suddenly, like when you put all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together to form an image, the solution appeared in my mind.

"The Chee," I said in realization. "One of the Chee could provide her with a place to eat and act as a legal guardian."

"Good thinking there Big Jake," Marco approvingly replied. "Toph would then just be able to morph something at her cave whenever she got hungry, fly or run to the house, demorph to eat and hang out, then go back home."

"I'm such a genius," I smugly grinned, crossing my arms.

"For once," he smirked teasingly, which made me chuckle.

"Before we have her meet one of the Chee though, much less go on a mission, we'd better do things in steps with Toph first, let her go at her own pace whenever it's prudent to do so. I'm sure she'll suffer major culture shock during her first trip into town, among other things, and can you imagine what the city will be like for her?"

Marco nodded. "Yeah, we don't want to overwhelm her if it can be helped. I'm sure Tobias and Ax have already probably told her at least a few things about the way life works here, but actually experiencing them will be a whole different ballgame."

"Well at any rate," I replied, checking my watch, "we'd better get going if we want some food in us." It kind of made me feel guilty, knowing that we were all going to be sitting down to eat a good lunch, while Toph would have none. Then I remembered Rachel had told me that morning she was going to use her bald eagle morph to take care of that, risky as it was. She seemed to have taken something of a shine to Toph, I'd guess.

"Anyway," I said as I slipped on my shoes and began to tie the laces, "Cassie's barn at four."

"I'll be there."

* * *

Toph was idly playing with a fist-sized lump of sandstone, forming and reforming it into different shapes as she sat in the shade of the gorge's eastern wall, her back against the short cliff.

Sometime around mid-day Rachel had come as a huge bird of prey called a bald eagle, although its head was fully feathered. It wasn't a raven eagle or vulture eagle either, just an eagle. More craziness.

She'd given the earthbender a paper bag from some sort of restaurant called "McDonald's." Inside had been two packages of stiff, lacquered paper containing ten of something called "Chicken McNuggets," and four squarish, smaller packages of something called barbeque sauce.

Rachel hadn't been able to stay very long, explaining that she had to get back to school, and had only enough time to say hello, tell her what the food was and where it was from, and that she hoped Toph liked it before turning around and flying off.

After shouting a thank you, the earthbender had opened up one of the two packages of smooth paper. They smelt wonderful, of grease and spice and breading, were nice and warm. But she was still cautious.

She'd eaten pig-chicken and chicken many times before. But who knew if this Earth chicken would be safe to eat?

So in spite of her hunger, she forced herself to just take a few nips at first, see what happened. When nothing did after a very long ten minutes, Toph decided chicken would be okay with her body and set to work devouring all twenty nuggets. Not wanting to push things too far, she left the barbeque sauce alone. Antelope Boy would be happy to take it off her hands later.

The "chicken nuggets" had been greasy and filling, and so had made her drowsy. So Toph had taken a short nap again.

Now it was just a matter of killing time until school got out.

Sighing, she let the rock fall and began to dig in her right ear.

It was then she became aware of the footsteps entering the head of her gorge, and snapped alert.

She sent out a wave of light bending. Were they intruders? Controllers?

No, it was the team she was about to join. Boss Boy. Sunshine. Tough Girl. Antelope Boy. And Marco, who in some ways reminded her of Sokka. He also did seem kind of cute...

(Hey there Toph,) Tobias said as he swooped down and landed on a boulder near her, interrupting the bender's brief reverie. (Well,) he commented, (the moment's arrived. How do you feel?)

"Excited," she grinned. "But also nervous."

As she stood up to greet her new friends, Toph detected that Sunshine was carrying a metal pail in one hand, and a small cage in the other. Clearly it contained an animal that would be her first morph!

"I know you probably felt us coming already," Boss Boy said then, "but still, we're back again, like we told you we would, and with the morphing cube this time. Cassie?"

Through her feet, Toph felt Sunshine nod, then gently put the cage down on a level place before grasping the bucket's lip and bringing it to her as the other Animorphs formed a half-circle around her.

There was a rustling of paper, and then suddenly the blind girl perceived that Sunshine was holding a cube, each of its sides about as big as her palm.

She felt the others tilt forward in its direction, heartbeats quickening as it was produced, regarding it with awe and apprehension at the same time. It was almost like some religious relic to them.

Toph Bei Fong couldn't keep the same wonder from coloring her own voice as she angled her head in the other girl's direction and said, "So that's the morphing cube."

With just one touch, this strange box would allow her to bend her very body, become any creature she chose. To swim in the oceans and rivers, to climb and leap through trees, to fly among the clouds like Aang. And to know sight.

(Escafil Device, to be precise,) Antelope Boy amended.

"That it is," Sunshine replied, reverently, as she put the bucket down.

She then walked forward and held out her left arm, cube in hand as she asked, "You ready to do this Toph?"

"Hey, there's no time like the present," the earthbender replied with a grin.

The atmosphere was solemn and Toph felt her own heartbeat spike as she tentatively reached for the magic cube, uncertain of what was going to happen when she made contact.

The tips of Toph Bei Fong's fingers, the fingers of the greatest earthbender on two planets, brushed against the cube's surface then.

Almost like when the Ellimist had given her the ability to speak and understand English, there was a sudden, sharp tingle that ran throughout her body, made her back arch and forever altered her jing.

She pulled her hand back with a quick grunt of surprise as Sunshine pulled her own away, telling her, "That's all there is to it. From now on, any animal you touch, you can become."

"Welcome to the team Toph," Tough Girl congratulated her.

"Now you're not just handi-capable, you're morph-capable too," Marco quipped.

The next second he gave a pained yelp as a bent pillar of stone crashed into his butt and sent him head over heels.

After the initial shock, Tough Girl burst out laughing as Marco, clutching his posterior, whined "Owww! What the hell did you do that for?"

"Because you made an irritating joke, not to mention one at my expense," she snapped back.

"Okay, I like your style even more now," Tough Girl grinned.

Not really sure what to think or say, Jake half-sternly told the earthbender, "Really, don't do that in the future anymore, okay? We do NOT use our powers to pound on the others...no matter how incredibly annoying some of them may be," he added half-jokingly as he glanced in Marco's direction.

"Ha ha. Nice to know I have so much sympathy around here," Marco complained as he rubbed his tailbone.

"All right," the blind earthbender reluctantly sighed.

Switching topics, she asked, meshing her hands together, "So, are we going to get started right now?"

(Wow, you're just chomping at the bit, aren't you?) Tobias laughed.

"Yes we are," Boss Boy replied, shifting his face towards Sunshine.

Taking her cue, Cassie picked up the cage (she had now put the morphing cube back in the bucket) explaining, "My parents are vets who take care of injured wildlife, and I help them out."

"That's nice of you guys."

"Thanks," she said warmly. "Anyway, I have a big brown bat in this cage that was attacked by a cat a few weeks ago and is now ready for release. But before I do, I'm going to take it and hold it so you can tou-"

"Touch it and then become a heavenly rat in front of you guys," Toph cut in with her usual lack of tact as she stretched her arms in front of her. "I get the idea Sunshine. Just tell me what I should do. And I really don't know why you people thought a _flying_ animal should be my first morph when it's the earth that I know and like the best, but hey, whatever."

(We thought a bat morph would best suit you as a 'bridge' to introduce you to sight without becoming too overwhelming,) Ax replied.

As Toph felt Sunshine place the bat's little cage on the ground again, kneeling as she did so, Tough Girl told the earthbender, increasingly eager at the idea of seeing, "As for what you should do, when Cassie brings the bat to you, consider it as you touch it. Think about its freedom in the air, the caves it lives in during the day, how it darts about to snatch insects, how it hangs upside down and listens in the dark. You'll know if you're successful if it goes into a trance and becomes docile for a bit."

"Okay. Then what?"

"At the risk of being too simple," Rachel went on, "then whenever you choose to morph the bat, calm yourself and then uh, focus on _being _it. Think of it inside you, waiting to burst free and take physical form."

"Basically, you have to mediate on becoming a bat," Marco chimed in. "But hey, you Chinese people already have that medita-"

He was cut off as Toph stamped hard with her right foot, shaking the stone with some light bending and pointing at him as she snarled through the right side of her mouth, "I'm _not _Chinese, stupid! I'm from the Earth Kingdom, and don't you forget it!"

"Whoa, okay, okay," Marco babbled as he held up his hands in appeasement. "Earth Kingdom it is."

"Toph, try. Take it easy," Boss Boy commanded her. "You are NOT here to pick fights."

"Sorry. Just got under my skin there," she sighed, running a hand through her bangs.

"His jokes can do that," Tough Girl said.

Meanwhile, Cassie had taken the bat out of its transport cage and was holding it firmly but gently with one hand as she returned to Toph.

The master earthbender felt Sunshine gently grasp her right wrist and move it both up and forward, telling her as she did, "Now stick out your pointer finger. Bat teeth are small, but still needle sharp, so I'm going to guide your finger to her back. Remember, consider it as you do."

"Okay," she replied softly.

The bat's fur was amazingly soft and silky to the touch, almost like a chinchilla-mink. She could feel the bat bucking against the other girl's grip, her little heart beating fiercely. And taking a deep breath, Toph mulled over the nature of her first morph.

The bat stopped struggling and squeaking them, relaxing and going limp in Cassie's hand. A thrill of delight swept through Toph as she drew her hand back. This bat was now a part of **her!** It was now something she could bend her body to become anytime she wanted. What a rush!

"Looks like we're done with you then," Sunshine told the bat as she went into a half-crouch. "Good luck and fly free June," she said as she tossed the bat into the air.

For a few moments Toph heard the flapping of leathery wings as the big brown bat ascended into the sky and made a loop or two to get her bearings. Then she was gone.

"Guess I'd better get started with my first experience body bending huh?" the blind girl said thoughtfully.

"Like you said, there's no time like the present," Jake concurred. "Keep in mind though," he warned her, "whenever you turn into an animal, its instincts and mind will be part of the package, and they can be very powerful at times. So make sure you don't allow them to overwhelm you."

The earthbender nodded to show she understood.

"Social insects are the worst," Tough Girl said with a shudder.

"Here we go then," Toph said as she sat down in a lotus position-after all, Marco had said you more or less had to meditate on it. She felt excited, scared and dumb all at once.

After a few seconds she opened her eyes. Still sightless. And she didn't feel like anything had actually happened.

"Sorry guys," she laughed ironically. "Guess it didn't work with me," she sighed as she began to itch her cheek.

And then, with a jolt, Toph's eyes widened as she realized her thumbnail had now become a sharp, hooked claw, and her cheek was now covered in silky fur.

She jerked it back like she'd been burned, shouting, "Ahh! Oh Oma! I'm growing fur! And a claw on my hand!"

"It's okay Toph, don't panic!" Cassie reassured her. "Just stay calm and focus. We're all here with you. We know it's scary, but it doesn't hurt you."

"Could you like, touch my shoulder or something while I do this Sunshine?" Toph shakily requested. "Just for some sort of support."

"I will, don't worry," Cassie told the earthbender as she felt her place her hand on her left shoulder. "These first few times can be rough."

Forcing the shock and fear to the bottom of her mind, the Blind Bandit took a fortifying, resolute breath, and focused again on becoming the bat. _Think of how awesome all this is, _she told herself. _When's the last time anyone from __your__ world got the chance to turn into a night swallow?_

And then the changes _**really**_ began.

* * *

**Night swallow and Heavenly rat are two of five names bats are known by in China. The others are Embracing wings, Flying rat, and my personal favorite, Fairy rat, lol.**

**Now it's contest time! During her time with the Animorphs, Toph will obviously need to have to use a false name when in public. I've picked four names that I think would suit her best (remember, snakes detect things mostly through feeling vibrations through their belly scales and tasting the air.)**

**Which do you readers like best? **

Zhenzhu=pearl.

Shitou=stone

She=snake

Quigai=strange.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys and gals, this is Nathan here. How can I put this politely? Hmm. While I appreciate all of you who stop to read or even better, fave this fanfic, please keep in mind that every paragraph and chapter is mostly nurtured by your reviews. As the reviews dry up, so does my motivation as well. So, politely, I ask you my readers, to go the extra mile to provide this motivation from time to time.**

**Switching gear here, I had so many feelings while writing this chapter! So I'm pretty confident you readers will too.**

* * *

From what Antelope Boy and Tobias had both told and shown her, the changes that occurred during body bending never followed a set pattern. And so it was with Toph.

As fur grew from her face and chest and back, she felt her ears expand and slide farther up the sides of her skull.

The bones of her fingers became longer and longer, sprouting and bursting from her flesh to hang like limp noodles.

"Ewww!" she cried out, more than a little rattled.

"Ugh, tell me about it," Tough Girl commented, turning her head away.

She was rapidly becoming smaller, feeling the ground rushing up to her with feet that now bore sharp sickles of claws in place of nails.

Her breasts slid apart over her chest to come to a stop just below each armpit, and there was suddenly a sharp, sickening, painless crunch as her breastbone burst outward, like it had been somehow savagely kicked from within.

As her own clothes began to envelop her like the drapes of a giant, Toph then felt a weird sort of skin, leathery, yet pliable, fragile, yet durable, grow between her radically elongated fingers.

Wings. The bat's wings that would allow her to take to the air.

Her bones started to become hollow, delicate, and the powerful muscles of her legs and thighs rapidly withered away, sending her tumbling forward to the ground. Cassie's hand fell away, and suddenly Toph felt her heart go wild!

It was like it had been kicked into action, a humming, racing thing that within seconds leapt from 150 to the bat's 900 beats a minute. Her lungs expanded in her chest as other organs shrank and shifted in her body cavity. Very creepy.

Then three things happened at once. The earthbender's skull suddenly flattened and her face bulged out to form a stubby muzzle, producing a resounding _CRUNCH!_ It honestly made Toph believe for an awful moment that her head had just been crushed like an egg. There was also a horrid, twisting, scraping sound as her knees abruptly reversed alignment.

And the icing on the cake? She realized that for the first time in her life, her ability to earthbend, her relationship with the soil and stone underneath her, was gone! Vanished completely!

It was too much horror to handle, and Toph threw back her head to scream, an unearthly, tinny, penetrating screech that was a fusion of girl and bat.

(Toph, calm down, it's alright!) Tobias urged her.

She tried to shoot back that it wasn't alright at _all_, but only a gabbling series of squeaks came out, which frustrated her immensely. And then she remembered.

_Oh yeah, the head voice,_ the earthbender thought. _Duh._

(All right?) she yelled back at Hawk Boy. (ALL RIGHT? I can't earthbend or feel my connection to the earth anymore, can't talk, just heard my own skull make a sound like it got smashed, and you've got the nerve to say it's all right, Hawk Boy? This is beyond terrifying!)

(But you'll also be able to see very shortly,) he replied, giving her pause. (Won't that be worth completing it in the end?)

(No one blames you for flipping out,) he went on. (And it's certainly better you did it out here then where any Controllers-or just average people-could hear you.) Turning solemn, he then said, (And believe me, I understand far too well what it's like to be cut away from a major part of your identity. But you have to see it through.)

(Okay.)

Now her tailbone stretched out to form a modest, honest-to-Oma _tail_, and the same type of skin linking her changed fingers began to form in her groin, a leathery sheet that grew right down to her bat ankles.

(Prince Jake has decided he is going to morph a bat as well,) Antelope Boy told her, (just so he can help guide you through these new experiences.)

And at that instant, the bat's mind welled up in hers.

_Confusion! Trapped! On the ground without a place to fly to! Get out!_

The bat bucked and scrabbled with the hooked claws at the apex of each wing. It didn't have any problem with enclosed spaces on principle. Indeed, it liked to cram itself into a cranny or crack or hole to rest, snug and secure among the tightly packed bodies of its fellows-but only as long as it had an escape route to the air.

Here, there was none.

Suddenly there was a feeling of moving upwards, and Toph's shining black eyes detected light.

Yes! Light! That meant an avenue of escape, a way to get into the sky!

Excitedly, the bat scrabbled out of the prison of clothes, into the open air. Into the evening light.

Wait a minute.

Light? _LIGHT?_

And suddenly, Toph Bei Fong knew who she was again. What she was. What she was doing.

She was _seeing_!

(Oh Tu Gong) she gasped in amazement, as she closed, and then opened the bat's eyes. (It's impossible,) she croaked. (This can't be happening. I can see! _Guys, I can see!_)

It was pure, overwhelming shock, and her mind reeled.

She was perceiving detail, a sense of space, and differences that she guessed were the "colors" she'd heard so much about. Astounding!

She closed her eyes again, trying to get a hold of herself. Although the bat was unable to shed tears, Toph still sobbed inside her head from sheer wonder and gratitude.

(I love you,) she told them, the Animorphs. (I love you all. Thank you. This is a miracle,) she sobbed.

There were sounds from bodies around and far above her, indistinct buzzings and slow growls too low-pitched for the bat's ears to detect.

Still, she definitely heard Antelope Boy say in her head, (It is our deepest pleasure to give you the gift of sight Toph.)

Tobias then told her, (And all of us Animorphs have said you're very welcome, and that they're proud of and excited for you. Cassie's definitely turning on the waterworks too-and if I had tear ducts, I would be as well.)

And now Toph became aware of another sense that she could utilize.

Opening her mouth, she bleated out an ultrasonic trill from deep in her new body's throat.

An instant later...

(Whoa!) she cried as she jerked back.

It was _amazingly_ like what she and the badgermoles did with their seismic sensing-only it was in the _**air**__._

In just two seconds, Toph sent out twenty pulses of sound and received twenty responses in her pricked ears.

She was surprised at how far it reached for such a tiny creature, about three paces away.

Immediately, the returning echoes confirmed what her newly working eyes were detecting, grass stalks, a nearby bush, two stones protruding from the soil, and most disconcertingly of all to the bat, five gigantic creatures and a hawk standing around her while she was still on the ground.

But now the earthbender had her new body under control.

(What in Oma's name is happening?) she demanded. (It's just like how I see with my feet, except it's with sound and in the air, and I can only do it in front of me.)

Suddenly her staccato bursts of sound began to return as a low drumbeat. The bat knew what that signified. It was the auditory signature of another bat in flight.

The bender automatically raised her borrowed body's head, craning it into a position that would've broken her neck if still human. And indeed, she saw another bat looping above her.

(It's called echolocation,) Jake said helpfully. (And you're right, it's very much like the vibration method you're used to using. That's why we thought it would be the perfect first morph for you.)

Toph was touched. (Thank you.)

(Hey, no problem,) Boss Boy replied.

(Toph, Marco just said that despite all the danger, all the extreme fear, all the pain and blood and sheer freakiness and insanity, there are still some times when he is PROUD to call himself an Animorph...and this is one of the best of those times,) Hawk Boy informed her.

The earthbender's heart melted, and as best she could with her bat facial muscles, she smiled.

(What am I seeing Boss Boy?) she asked him in wonder. (I mean, there are differences in what I'm...looking at, just like there are differences in the density of types of stone, or in the notes of a song. And I'm not talking shape either, just so you know,) she added.

(What you're seeing are colors,) Boss Boy, now hanging from a scraggly bush, informed her. (Another reason we chose the bat for your first morph is because they can only see in black-which is what you've known all your life as a blind person-and white, which is the different type. And if you see a mixture between the two, that's called gray or silver, whichever you prefer.)

(Silver works for me,) the young earthbender decided immediately, as she closed her eyes and sent out another volley of sonic bleats from her mouth.

It reminded her of the big, buff guy who had played her on stage in the Fire Nation production, with his hilarious pretend sonic wave 'ability,' and she burst out cackling at the bizarre irony of it all, that she as the real thing was now following right in the footsteps of make-believe!

(What's so funny?) Hawk Boy asked in bemusement.

(Nothing,) Toph snickered. (It would take too long to explain. Just irony at work, that's all.)

Making educated guesses, she quickly figured out that the shapes she was detecting with her 'echolocation,' corresponded to the images she perceived whenever her eyes were open. Pretty cool.

(Would you like to try flying now?) Boss Boy asked her.

(Oh, that would be awesome!) she said gleefully, still riding a crest of euphoria. (Besides, it'll make this fairy rat's instincts quit spazzing,) she grumbled.

(Rachel, could you give Toph a hand?) he asked.

There was a loud rasping of grass, and a huge shadow appeared before the bender, the form of a giantess kneeling down to her. It was a giantess.

Both the bat and the bender were in a state of complete panic as a hand the size of a house reached for her.

But Toph forced herself to stay still, to marvel at the experience of being able to perceive a human face visually.

When the fingers lightly curled around her body though, each one the size of a big tree, she couldn't take it any longer, and gave way to a panicked urge to struggle, clawing with her wing hooks.

She felt herself rising into the air as Rachel stood erect.

(Get ready,) Hawk Boy told her. (She's gonna toss you into the air any moment, so prepare to fly.)

(But I have no idea how, Hawk Boy!)

(You might not, but the bat sure does. Let her take the reins.)

And then, before Toph could say another word, there was a buzzing, rolling cadence of speech, Rachel's fingers fell away, and her gigantic hand catapulted the metalbender into the air.

She was terrified, falling!

But then she remembered Hawk Boy's words and let herself go as the bat then went into a flapping glide.

At first, Toph had her bat body use a leapfrog style of flying, fluttering from one bush to another, from a sapling to a boulder. Jake flew alongside her, coaxing and encouraging.

But in no time at all, her confidence grew, and she fluttered up into the evening sky with Boss Boy, pushing air behind her with each stroke of her borrowed wings.

The earthbender was taken aback and petrified, being so high above the ground. But the bat was not. Save for owls or hawks, she was safe here in the sky. She could go wherever she pleased. This was her home and pantry.

And it reassured the human mind sharing her skull.

It truly was so amazing to fly, so free, so blissful, and suddenly Toph understood the appeal of the air for Aang and his vanished people on a level she could never have touched in her original body.

She could _see_ the trees and rocks and the gorge beneath her, around her, in sharp black and white and silver. It was the most incredible, coolest thing ever, and she gratefully told her flying companion as much.

(Yeah,) Boss Boy heartily agreed. (Being able to fly rules more than anything that has ever ruled before. Total freedom. And just wait until you get a bird of prey morph! Tobias would probably let you acquire him tonight if you want.)

(I'd love that,) she said happily.

(Also,) she added, (I've been noticing that every time I send out a sound pulse, something weird happens with my ears, and I can't hear anything as I do it. Is that normal, Boss Boy?)

(Yep,) he reassured her. (It is. According to Cassie, every time a bat calls out, one of the bones in its ear moves away from the eardrum so no sound vibrations are transmitted. Otherwise the bat would wreck its hearing, go deaf from its own screeches. And when it stops, the bone moves back to touch the eardrum again.)

Toph was amazed, and was about to tell Boss Boy something to that effect.

Then her sensitive ears picked up a long, high rasp as the echo of her cry returned to them.

An insect!

Excitement leapt through Toph, and she immediately made a beeline for it, her ultrasonic bleating increasing to two hundred beats a second. Right away, she could figure out exactly where the prey was from the clarity, direction, and triangulation of the signals, as well as size and texture.

A damselfly!

She was pursuing it like an arrow before she could even consider stopping, wings beating as fast as her heart.

(Leave it Toph!) Boss Boy barked. But she paid him no heed.

The damselfly was fast and agile. But Toph was quicker.

It _loomed_ in her vision then, sharp and detailed in black and white.

In a flash she was on it, intercepting and batting it towards her face with her right wing, then snapping her jaws across its thorax, shifting her sonic clicks so that they now came through her nose.

Success!

(Drop it Toph! Don't lose control!) Jake commanded.

She jerked back to reality.

(Whoa. Got carried away a bit there,) she said, the damselfly still clenched in her pin-sharp teeth.

(Yep,) Boss Boy frankly replied. (But it's your first time morphing after all, so it's okay. And even we guys sometimes get tak-where are you going now?)

(To find a place to 'hang out' while I chow down, Boss Boy,) she replied, descending towards the crown of a maple tree.

Catching a branch with her hind claws, she let her body fall forward and limply hung from it, continuing to echolocate through her nose as she sliced up the damselfly with the bat's W-shaped cheek teeth, clipping off its wings and letting them fall. And all the while, she continued to enjoy the view. Her first.

(I guess you didn't want to waste it, huh?) Boss Boy commented as he landed near her.

Toph nodded. (It's a really long story, but when I was traveling with Aang-Hawk Boy can tell you more-his friend Sokka would often go out hunting or fishing for us. He told us several times that to waste any animal you caught or killed was a major crime before men and the spirits, and you'd pay for it sooner or later, especially if you did it just for sport.)

She saw Boss Boy nod approvingly, understandingly.

(Besides, it's not like I've never eaten insects before,) she added, shrugging her bat shoulders.

(Excuse me?) Jake said, in a tone that was both surprised and repelled at once. (You actually eat BUGS where you come from?)

(Yeah,) Toph replied as she launched herself back into the air once more, sending the staccato clicks back from her mouth, a bit mystified at what the big deal was. (Not often, but sometimes. Fried silkworms, ant soup with the eggs and grubs, fried grasshoppers and dragonflies, scorpions. They're not all that bad, really.)

(Ick.) Boss Boy shuddered. (But at any rate, try to steer your morphs away from doing things like that in the future, all right?)

(I hear ya, Boss Boy.)

(Doesn't mean you can never feed at all in a morph though,) he added. (Some of the creatures we become, like these bats, have such a high metabolism you almost have to top off the tank at least a few times if you're going to be in morph for a while. Others like horses are always grazing, so the same thing applies. And finally, sometimes we feed in morph just to look natural-especially if we know Controllers are around,) he finished darkly.

It was an experience she never wanted to end, flying and seeing on this most glorious of evenings. She could've burst with joy.

She flew up and down the stream, grabbing the odd caddis fly and twice using her lower jaw to scoop up water on the wing.

She marveled at being able to regard human faces, the details of Antelope Boy's fur, how Sunshine's skin was darker than that of the others, Marco's to a lesser degree.

But all good things must come to an end, and after a miraculous hour, hour and a quarter, Boss Boy reluctantly told her, (Sorry Toph, but once again, we've got to go back home. You'd better land and change back too.)

She sighed inside her head. There was a huge part of her that was eager to return to the familiar darkness, to be rooted to the earth once more, to be able to earthbend again, to be in a human body.

And yet, like a child who has just been told by his mother it's time to dry off and leave the water park, there was also a part of Toph that didn't want to let go of this brand new way of being, to turn her back on this wonderland.

As if reading her thoughts, Boss Boy assured her, (I know how this must be for you to have to change back. But don't worry, because now you can become the bat whenever you want to see and fly.)

(And there are plenty of other creatures you can morph, ones with even better eyes than these,) he added.

(Really? Awesome!) Toph cried in ecstasy. She _had_ to see through those!

(That's right,) he confirmed. (More colors than you can even imagine. Some animals can see even more colors than a person! Cassie has all sorts of these creatures at the barn that serves as a hospital on her family's farm, and tomorrow morning she'd be happy to bring you there.)

(I can't wait Boss Boy. I can't wait.)

* * *

**Because I'll be going on a trip quite shortly, this'll almost certainly the last chapter I'll be uploading for at least a solid week. But when I do start up again, the wait will be worth it!**

**I've decided this part of the story is taking place during the "lull" between books #44 and #45 in the series, which is a big reason why the Animorphs feel no real urgency here to toss our favorite earthbender into the deep end of the pool, so to speak.**

**As for future chapters? Well, among other things, Toph will meet the Chee, meet her first Controller, Mertil will make an appearance, and Toph will find that she has a twist all her own to her morphing abilities...one unknown even to the Andalites.**


	11. Chapter 11

**At long last, here's another chapter! Remember how I said this one would be about Toph's Big Saturday Adventure? Yeah well, I got a bit ahead of myself there. This one will deal with the remainder of her Friday instead.**

**Once more, I love all reviews, whether positive or not so much. They motivate me to keep at this.**

* * *

As Toph descended back towards the cave she'd chosen as her home, her bat eyes noticed the disorganized pile of clothing in the ravine next to where the others were standing, including her funikoshi loincloth and breast bindings. Embarrassment welled up within her at the realization that she was shortly going to be buck naked when she demorphed.

While she was hardly the refined or modest type, and certainly, the bender had little problem being nude around other girls, she was _not _going to be undressed around guys!

(Um, guys? I just realized I'm not exactly going to be decent when I change back. Sunshine or Tough Girl, could one of you bring my clothes into the cave for me? And none of you boys had better even _consider _looking at my tits or my snatch,) she darkly warned as she shot for the cave's mouth.

Jake burst out in a sputtering type of mortified laughter inside her head along with Tobias, who told her, (Whoa, that was pretty blunt there!)

Getting himself under control, Boss Boy replied, (To say the least!)

(What sort of anatomical structure is a 'snatch'?) Ax wondered in confusion.

(We'll tell you when you're older, Ax-man,) Hawk Boy said.

As she entered the cave, a black veil fell across Toph's brand new sense, and now she had to fall back entirely on echolocation, her rapid-fire clicks bouncing off the walls and roof.

(Cassie's going to bring in your clothes,) Hawk Boy told her. He laughed then, adding, (And Rachel just said not to worry, because if Marco tries to be a perv, she'll morph into a grizzly bear and eat him.)

The earthbender laughed herself as she flew to the base of a cave wall, grabbed it with her wing claws, then her feet, and turned around to face head down before scuttling the last foot or so to the ground.

From somewhere outside, she heard Jake tell her, (We'd better teach you how to morph clothing, even though it may not exactly be the type you're used to wearing. That's why I'm demorphing outside,) he added.

(That'd sure make things a lot more convenient.)

The mind of the bat within the earthbender was ill at ease as Toph made their shared body crawl out onto the cave floor. She much rather would've been hanging from the roof, safely out of reach of foxes, weasels, and other predators while she rested and groomed her fur.

And she wasn't the only one who was reluctant to be there.

Toph sighed internally.

The alarming lack of her ability to earthbend, to feel that connection with the soil and stone, was like a vast, limitless canyon inside her, a visceral _absence_ that she badly wanted to seal up. And she belonged in a human body, not a night swallow's, one that could run and grasp and speak and laugh.

And yet, now she could suddenly see! She could _**see**_, for Tu Gong's sake! And fly!

How could you just turn your back on that?

(This stinks guys,) she sighed unhappily. (After being able to see for the first time ever, changing back is almost like returning to a prison cell for me.)

(We know how you feel Toph,) Hawk Boy told her sympathetically. (But you _so_ don't want to end up trapped like me, and think of all the other creatures you'll be able to try out later. Besides, you'll probably revisit what happened in your dreams tonight. You need to change back.)

(I know,) she sighed. Maybe it would help if she thought of body bending as like a cool vacation or field trip, one she could go on whenever she wanted.

Reluctantly focusing her mind on what she really was, the earthbender began to change again.

Just like when she'd first become the bat, the changes her body went through on its way back to human were equally random.

Her bat teeth changed first, pointed, needle sharp canines becoming square and blunt, slicing cheek teeth reverting to rounded molars.

There was a sickening, grinding _crack_ as her keeled breastbone imploded inward, becoming smooth and slightly sunken once more.

At the ends of her stretched-out fingers, the terminal bones widened and flattened to become fingernails.

Then, for a time, nothing happened as the bat body simply became bigger. Understandably, this rattled her.

_Oh merciful Oma!_

Had something gone terribly wrong?

No time for that. She would just have to keep focusing her chi and take things as they came.

It was only when she'd grown to about the size of a large hogmonkey that thankfully, the changes started up again.

The leathery membrane between her fingers and thighs receded. The top of her skull became higher and more spherical. Her fingers shortened, and the claws disappeared from her toes.

It was at this time that her ability to echolocate suddenly vanished. Seconds later, her eyes changed as well.

There was an altering, a return to the normal, and Toph understood that her eyes were now human ones once more. Sightless eyes.

She was cut off.

For a few moments, as the bones of her limbs became longer and thicker, and her hair slid down her nape and back and forehead like poured pitch, the master earthbender was truly blind, lost, having to rely solely on hearing and touch.

And then, with joy and relief, she felt the soil connect with her again as her earthbending ability returned. She sighed contentedly as she sent and felt tremors through her human hands.

Within a second, she knew Cassie was respectfully standing a pace or two away, the blind girl's clothing held in her hands. Thankfully, it was just the two of them in the cave.

As the last of her human body replaced the bat's, Toph sat up, threw her head back, and promptly held out her hand to Sunshine, asking, "My underwear please."

There was a rustling, and she felt the garments in her hand as Sunshine replied, "Here you are."

She wasted no time slipping on her loincloth and then tying her breast wrap as Cassie commented, "Tommorrow I'm going to bring you some tight-fitting clothing that'll stay on you whenever you morph."

"Boss Boy told me the same thing already. But how _does _thatwork, Sunshine?" the perplexed earthbender asked.

She felt Sunshine shrug as the other girl replied, placing her clothing on the cave floor, "We don't really know. I just discovered early on that if a garment is skin tight, it fuses with you as you morph, then reappears when you demorph."

"Well, it'll spare me the embarrassment of being bare-ass naked at any rate, and that'll sure be a relief," Toph said as she grabbed, then pulled on her pants.

To be back in her body, to have her bending again, was both comforting and familiar. Yet now it was slightly strange, almost like she was feeling the soil, using her seismic sense for the first time.

Her mind grappled with the exotic new stimuli, concepts, it had just received. So this was "black," the nothingness that had greeted her eyes for as long as she could remember.

After getting dressed, Sunshine helped her get her hair back into its typical bun, informing her, "No offense Toph, but this hairstyle will probably draw attention in our society. I hope you don't mind wearing it in a braid instead to blend in."

_Like Flipping Girl,_ Toph thought, thinking of Ty Lee.

"That's fine, I guess," she conceded. "Besides, I won't get as much twigs and crap caught in my hair whenever I'm out in these woods that way. And what about clothes, like the ones you and Tough Girl wear?"

"I've already thought of that, and since we're about the same size, I'll bring you some of my things tomorrow for you to wear," she assured her.

"Thanks Sunshine," she said fondly. "You guys are so good to me."

Once more, it was ground vibrations that she relied on as she walked barefoot to the mouth of the cave, then out into the ravine, Cassie just behind.

There was a sensation of tightness in her throat, and her eyes began to sting as she strode right up to Boss Boy and promptly embraced him in gratitude, resting her head against his broad chest.

He gave a short grunt of surprise as tears ran down her cheeks and she clenched her sightless eyes shut, thickly telling him, "Thank you Boss Boy. Thank you so much for giving me the chance to see."

"Uh, you're welcome Toph," he replied, both somewhat sheepish and touched himself as he uncertainly hugged her back, raising his head to glance over hers.

Toph realized he was nervous that hugging her would make Cassie jealous.

But Sunshine understood, and Toph felt her strong arms embrace her from behind, her own voice gentle and delighted as she chimed in, "It was our pleasure Toph."

"You know, I'm not the most sentimental of guys," Smart Aleck commented, "but I'd say an occasion like this warrants an exception. Come on Xena, let's join the group hug."

"Just don't you use it as an excuse to grope me Marco," Tough Girl growled in a playful threat before Toph felt their bodies pressing against hers too.

Hawk Boy landed near them, and Antelope Boy strode up to the group, touching her back with his left hand.

For several long, wonderful seconds they stayed that way as Toph smiled and wept grateful streams of tears, ones generated from the completely glorious anguish of an impossible desire suddenly fulfilled after years of hopeless wondering and yearning.

While she couldn't really tell with Tobias and Aximilli, she could definitely feel the waves of love and joy and pride coming from the others, and she knew without a doubt that just like with the Gaang, this new team, these Animorphs, accepted and understood her. And of course, were happy for her.

When they parted, Toph took a deep, shaky breath and wiped her eyes with the cloth on the back of her wristband before asking, "So what's next? I know you guys all have to go home, but what's the plan for tomorrow? Besides you bringing me proper clothes to blend in around here," she added to Cassie.

"Well, Jake and I have decided that it'll be a lot easier for both you and us if you have a place to call home and someone to help look out for you," Smart Aleck replied. "So next morn-"

"Um, I'm perfectly okay living out here," Toph said, confused and mildly irritated as she raised an eyebrow and gestured behind her to the cave. "And I can take care of myself just _fine_ without a babysitter, thank you!"

Really, she ran a whole metalbending academy on her own, for Shu's sake!

"That's not what we meant Toph," Boss Boy patiently explained. "If you want to have this cave as your home while you're here, that's cool. And we don't doubt that you can manage things on your own. But we also don't have the time to bring you food three times a day without being noticed, so we want you to have a place where you can go have a meal whenever you're hungry-and without having to worry about the Yeerks."

"I sure like the sound of that."

"Plus," Sunshine added, "except for evenings or the weekends, we're pretty much stuck in school all day, while Ax and Tobias do a lot of things that you'll be left out of, like hunting or spy work-which means there'll be a lot of time when you'll have no one around. And we don't want you to be lonesome or bored out here."

"Yeah, me neither," Toph agreed. "I've already experienced enough of that for _several_ lifetimes, believe me," she said quietly.

(Exactly,) Hawk Boy agreed from a nearby boulder. (I mean, you're good company and everything, don't get me wrong, and one of us will drop by here whenever we can, but we've got our own stuff to do as well, Ax-man and I.)

(I must also stay as inactive as possible during the day to avoid detection by a Controller or being harmed by a human hunter who might mistake me for a deer,) Antelope Boy added.

"Hey, say no more," Toph replied as she stretched her arms in front of her. "So I'm going to meet my new caretaker and friend tomorrow I guess, probably pay a visit to their home too, huh?"

"Right," Smart Aleck confirmed.

Boss Boy nodded before saying, "Not only are they going to basically play the role of your foster mother, they're also going to act as your legal guardian. Again, don't take that the wrong way," he hurriedly amended. "You'll still have all the freedom you want. It's just to help you blend into our society better and make sure that someone trustworthy is looking out for your interests, who'll provide you not just with food and companionship, but money and medical help too."

"Gotta say, I definitely like the idea of being given money!" Toph grinned as she scratched her calf with her right great toe.

"Don't we all," Smart Aleck smirked.

"An allowance is an awesome thing," Tough Girl agreed.

"She can also buy you anything you need to make your life out here more comfortable," Boss Boy added.

(Once you acquire a morph with color vision, you simply MUST get a television!) Antelope Boy enthusiastically advised her. (These Messages alone are worth it!)

"I'll think about it," she replied, her tone dismissive.

"Of course, we can provide you with a few things ourselves," Cassie chimed in as she picked up the metal pail and presented it to Toph.

"Uh, thanks I guess, but why exactly are you giving me a pail?" Toph asked as she took it, raising an eyebrow in confusion. With her bending, she could feel the density of the refined minerals, and sense that it was composed of good-quality steel, overlaid with zinc.

"It's so you can draw water from the stream," Sunshine said. "Wash up, get a drink at night without having to leave your bed and go out into the cold."

"Good plan."

"And speaking of cold, I also have one of my dad's 200 barbecue lighters in there for you to make a fire," Smart Aleck informed her.

"Um, what sort of weird thing is a barbecue lighter?" Toph asked, drawing her head back slightly as her forehead furrowed in puzzlement. "What's a barbecue even?"

(It doesn't really matter Toph,) Hawk Boy told her. (All you need to know is that it's something you can use to light a campfire. I'll morph human and help you out later, okay? Get a nice warm fire going.)

"That'll be wonderful," she sighed blissfully. "There's nothing like sitting next to a good, cozy campfire at night and smelling the wood smoke-except maybe falling asleep next to it."

"Got that right," Cassie agreed.

As she gripped the pail's handle in her right hand and let it swing free, the metalbender added, "And that reminds me, before I changed back Boss Boy over here mentioned that you have a barn on your property that serves as the hospital for all the wild animals you help."

"Yep, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic," Sunshine confirmed. "From wolves to warblers, we get them all. I suppose you want to acquire some of the patients as morphs."

"Exactly," the earthbender nodded eagerly. "Hope you don't mind controlling them for me though, and telling me about what each of these weird new animals can do."

"Not at all," Sunshine smiled. "I have a great bird of prey morph waiting in the wings for you in fact-so to speak," she added wryly, her pun causing both girls to laugh. "Plus, you could meet my mom and dad."

"I'd enjoy that Sunshine."

"We've also got to take you to our local zoo and get you a morph that can really kick some ass," Smart Aleck mentioned.

"Yeah," Jake agreed. "A situation with the Yeerks trying something could develop at a moment's notice-Heck, maybe even tomorrow for all we know-so the sooner you have a decent battle morph, the better."

"I can tell you all about some great choices for species," Tough Girl gladly volunteered.

"Thanks Tough Girl, but I've already made up my mind," Toph declared. "Last night I heard this huge cat that you guys call a cougar screeching like a demon out in the woods, and both Ax and Hawk Boy here told me some things about how awesome these cougars are. So if you're going to bring me to the zoo to acquire something that can give a Controller a good butt-kicking, it's a cougar for me!"

"That is a pretty good choice," Rachel approvingly. "Agility and power all in one package."

"Well, unfortunately, we don't have a cougar at the Gardens right now," Cassie regretfully informed Toph.

Before the metalbender's heart could sink in disappointment though, Sunshine then added, "But I do know a place nearby which does-one where they'll even _allow _you to touch the cat."

"Awesome," she grinned in satisfaction, putting her hands together. "Will there be time tomorrow for us to go there too?"

"I think it's doable," Cassie answered hesitantly after several seconds. "No promises though."

"Sounds like you're going to be having an awfully busy Saturday Toph," Smart Aleck commented.

"What's that mean?" the blind girl asked quizzically. "Is that what you call one of your days?"

"That's right," Rachel replied. "It's the name of the last day of the week, and in our society, both it and Sunday, the first day of the week, are days off from school and work."

"Ah," Toph replied in understandment. "We have a custom like that too, except our days are named after the four elements in some way."

"Well, interesting as I'm sure your calendar is, right now it's definitely time for me to split and get back home," Smart Aleck said hurriedly, glancing up at the sky, then something on his wrist. "Got some oh-so-important history essay to type up and geometry to do in between saving the world after all," he half-jokingly snarked.

"Then you'd better jump to it and get it done Smart Aleck," she replied in mock warning as she pointed at him.

"Smart Aleck," Boss Boy laughed approvingly. "This girl sure knows how to choose the nicknames Marco."

"Yeah, it's so funny Jake. I would prefer something more along the lines of Marco The Mighty," he dryly responded in irritation.

"Eh, she's just calling it the way it is Marco-or should I say Smart Aleck," Tough Girl ribbed him.

"Oh brother."

Toph decided she liked the sound of Smart Aleck's voice. Something about its pitch just appealed to her, not to mention how it usually seemed to have a quality of wry humor behind the words. He was also definitely witty. Kind of like Sokka...

She shook her head in surprise at the thought. Really now, what was she thinking?

* * *

Silently, Toph meditatively rested her chin on her crossed forearms, which in turn rested on her knees as she listened to the fire snapping and crackling in its pit, smelling the smoke that drifted up through the hole in the cave roof as the heat bathed her body.

Cassie had kindly brought her dinner earlier in yet another of those weird, slick "Ziploc" bags, containing another banana, a smaller package containing two flat, compressed rectangles of sweetened grain she said were "granola bars," and a good-sized roast venison chop, spiced with chili powder and black pepper. (Although her parents unsurprisingly had little love for the idea of hunting, Jake's father sometimes offered them frozen packages of wild game meat as gifts, which Walter and Michelle could hardly refuse. Then too, being a man who'd always hated the idea of wasting perfectly edible food, Walter tended to either donate the meat of any deer, bears, turkeys, feral pigs, or geese that died at the clinic to a food bank or process and make use of it himself.)

The venison had been wonderfully juicy and gamy, while the granola bars had been pretty good too.

Antelope Boy had thought so as well, bending into his human morph and asking in his stilted way if he could have half of one of the bars. She'd kindly obliged.

Hawk Boy had morphed human too, using his hands and sight to put some of the wood and sticks she'd gathered earlier in the pit and then get a fire going with the weird stick-like tool Smart Aleck had called a barbecue lighter. _Whatever that was._

From what she gathered, you had to hold it by the thicker butt end and then use one of your fingers to pull on a crescent-shaped lever called a "trigger," which would magically cause a small flame to appear at the other end. She didn't understand it.

The blind girl's mind kept drifting back to the same unreal, magical thing she'd just experienced, the memory of _seeing_ as the bat and flying free.

Sightlessly, she stared at the fire before her, contemplating it.

She knew of course, that it was one of the four basic elements people could manipulate in her world. _So far away now!_

She also knew-all too well-that while fire was warm and inviting, it was also hot up close and hurt you. _My feet got burnt!_

And yet, from what Hothead and his uncle had told her, fire was also very beautiful, something hypnotic which danced and licked and crept and "glowed." It was all "orange" and "yellow" in "color," concepts which were so frustratingly impossible for her to grasp, and had only filled her with a melancholic, helpless longing.

But tomorrow was going to change all that. Tomorrow she was going to touch at least several creatures, creatures that could see in a _**huge**_, mind-boggling variety of these "colors," and so gain the power to look through those eyes whenever she chose-and she knew that this would include the eyes of an ordinary person sooner rather than later.

She would finally understand and revel in red and orange, yellow and green, blue and purple, pink and brown and tan, comprehend the full nature of the sun, the moon, the stars and the sky and the wonder of birds. She would get _to __fly__ as a bird!_

The promise of it was overwhelming, made her head spin.

And already, Toph Beifong knew that it would be so tempting, so _damn_ tempting, to just pick one of these seeing "morphs," most likely a sighted human, and stay in that body. Forever. Become a _nothlit_, as Antelope Boy called these prisoners in other bodies.

On the other hand...

She would also lose her ability to earthbend and metalbend forever, along with her connection with the stone and soil beneath her feet. Metal would once again be a cold, distant thing under her hands.

How could she, a spiritual daughter of Oma and Shu, student of the great badgermoles, the most accomplished earthbender in living memory, in the freaking _**universe**_, even _dare_ to think about throwing such power and ability away? Why, it would be like giving up her metalbending academy, having her feet chopped off at the ankles!

If she hypothetically did do it, her parents would understand the decision at least, Toph knew, probably even welcome it once they'd wrapped their minds around the concept of what she'd done to her body. As for her friends, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko...well, they'd all understand on some level too.

Her current students though, as well as her admirers and the world at large would be a different story. They'd be shocked, scornful, let down in a major way. She wouldn't be the only one to lose something very important to them.

It would be very selfish and petty on her part indeed to become a human _nothlit_, or any type of _nothlit_ at all for that matter, just so she could live a life with sight.

But to have to let go of that way of perception, know the lack, every time she would change back!

The blind earthbender tossed her head and snorted like an irritated ostrich-horse. She was getting ahead of herself. Really, what business did she have debating whether she should either stay as Toph Beifong or a normal person that could see until and unless she'd actually spent time testing out the body of the latter?

All this made her think of Hawk Boy.

After he'd gotten the fire going, he'd morphed back to red-tailed hawk and bid her goodbye for the evening, explaining that he was headed to Tough Girl's house, partly to pass on what the earthbender had told him and Ax about her world and life, partly just to spend time with her. Then he would head back to his roost to sleep.

Toph decided she found the idea of their relationship to be sweet and bizarre and sad all at once.

She was distracted then from her reverie by Antelope Boy, now back in his natural Andalite form, standing up from where he'd been reclining on the other side of the fire, towards the cave mouth.

"Going out to do that grazing-through-your-hooves-thing?" she casually inquired.

(Yes Toph,) he confirmed. (I shall be back in a few of your hours.)

"May I go with you?" she asked softly.

(Sorry, but that would simply not be possible,) he replied, (for you could not keep up with me as I ran, and you do not know the forest as well as I do yet.)

"I see," she conceded, somewhat bummed as she slumped slightly.

(You seem disappointed,) he observed. (Is there a reason why you ask this of me?)

"Well, it's just that it's finally sinking in how isolated and _alone_ I am here on this 'Earth', Antelope Boy," she told him forlornly. "How I'm the only bender in this world, the only one of my kind at all...and how far away from home I must be. What I'm saying Ax is that I feel...I feel terribly lonely right now," she whispered thickly. "And I could use company in the worst way."

Antelope Boy was silent for a few moments.

Then he walked around the fire toward her, and Toph suddenly felt his muscular, furry tail curve around her upper back and right side.

It startled her for a moment, but she relaxed when Ax explained, (This is one of the ways we Andalites express affectionate feelings as others,) as he slid his tail over and around her body, blade held safely away from her flesh.

(As for your feelings of solitude and distress at being apart from your society and your race...Tobias and I are all too familiar with these as well,) he told her sympathetically, and she could feel the longing in his silent voice. (We are both marooned in this forest, this world-but we understand each other as a result too. And at least your form happens to be similar enough to an Earth-human's that you can comfortably pass for one without frightening or baffling them,) he added wistfully.

"True," she conceded before spitting to her right side.

Toph felt the soft impact of his hooves on the stone then as he backed away and faced the cave entrance.

Suddenly he stopped, indecisive, a foreleg in the air.

(You know Toph,) he mentioned, (while it isn't something I would normally do, how would you like to ride on my back tonight as I feed? You would enjoy the sensation and also have my company at the same time,) he proposed.

"Ride you? Really? That'd be awesome!" she exclaimed in delight.

Pushing herself erect, she strode right over to Antelope Boy as he kneeled like a camelephant accepting a rider. Swinging a leg over his left side, she seated herself and lightly wrapped her arms around his lower chest for stability.

(Are you ready?) the Andalite asked as she sensed him glance back with his stalk eyes.

"I'm ready, Antelope Boy."

Straining briefly against her weight, Ax got to his feet, and Toph felt hers lose contact with the stone.

And then he broke into a run.

It was exciting, exhilarating, wild, confusing, and just plain fun all at once, just like when she'd ridden the eel hound during the comet's arrival. It was just like flying!

Like her previous mount, she felt Ax's muscles knot and stretch and work, his body spring and dodge as he leapt over logs and boulders, avoided trees, jumped across creeks.

Occasionally she jerked as she heard his tail give a fearsome bullwhip _crack_, the blade arching over her body in a terrible parabola to chop away any obstructing branches.

In several minutes, they were in the fields beyond the edge of the forest, and Ax slowed down somewhat, running at a less frenetic pace as he fed. It was still fast enough to be fun for Toph though.

She soon began to notice that while Antelope Boy usually ran in a straight line, sometimes he made a wide, forceful turn that pulled at both her body and his.

It was curious, and she asked him why he did it.

(I do it to keep my legs flexible and in good condition,) he replied. (When I was still a calf, running with my mother, she or my father would turn in a wide semi-circle, forcing me to lengthen my stride and move my legs into different angles, positions, while running, and so increase my speed and agility. Later, I performed the same exercises while training with other cadets at the military academy.)

Suddenly grave, he then said, (And it serves a serious purpose. While we no longer have to worry about predators, and now possess both morphing technology and beam weapons, one thing that hasn't changed is that to be knocked down or to stumble by accident on the battlefield can easily cost an Andalite warrior his life.)

"No doubt," Toph agreed.

They were silent for a time, and the earthbender was content to just revel in the thrill of Ax's speed.

"Antelope Boy?"

(Yes Toph?)

"Tell me, is the moon out?"

(Yes it is Toph. It is currently three quarters full.)

"What color is the moon?"

(This Earth's one is white.)

And Toph's lips curved up in a grateful, enchanted smile, a hotness pricking in the corners of her eyes as the memory came flooding back. Finally, she could understand.

* * *

**I loved writing that Toph/Ax bonding part. So many feelings!**

**By the way, I'm fully aware that some of you might be wondering when Toph is going to kick butt on the Yeerks. I just want to assure you that these scenes WILL come in their own good time-and they'll totally be worth the wait! (Indeed, I'm going to start working on an outline later for a 'bridge' between this point in the fic and Book #45, with at least a couple Yeerk/Animorph skirmishes that may or may not involve Visser Three. Any ideas?)**

**But for now, I'm continuing to follow Toph as she comes to know the Animorphs, our planet, different types of bodies, and our strange new society better.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Whew! After several long days of typing and hard work, here's the first half of Chapter 12 at last!**

**Thanks so much to my reviewers, as before. Your responses are what make my time and effort actually feel worthwhile.**

**And to Chaos4ever: Don't worry, I would never dream of having Toph, whether by accident or by design, become a nothlit! She's way too cool for that! Still, I feel that it would be realistic for her to be at least tempted by the idea.**

* * *

**Marco.**

Here's one thing I've learned since I became an Animorph. Lack of sleep, especially if it's the chronic type, _does _things to your body.

You feel like your head is stuffed with muddy rags, like your legs are made out of solid lead so that you stumble around like an elephant that's had too much to drink, like your skull bones are being pulled apart at the seams.

As for looking at bright lights? That's just plain awful.

It's like someone is sticking hot dagger blades into your eyeballs.

So I was pretty relieved when at last, I got enough of my American History paper and my geometry backlog finished to justify turning off my headache-inducing lamp, then my equally painful computer, and plunging my bedroom into blissful darkness.

Under the softer, more tolerable glow of the bathroom light, I brushed my teeth, spat, and then went back to my room to hit the hay.

Ever since I had the bad fortune to walk through that abandoned construction site, I've spent an awful lot of time worrying and wondering about things no kid should ever have to before finally falling asleep.

If my mom is still alive as a Controller. If there's any realistic chance of me actually setting her free, even if that means death at her own son's hands.

If the Yeerks are going to Dracon the bejesus out of my house tonight, or I'll be hearing them smash down the doors with a squad of Hork-Baijir. If I could manage to get my dad out of the house in time.

If Tom's Yeerk is going to lose patience after all his attempts to persuade Jake to join The Sharing, and just have our fearless leader infested directly, which would be the end of us. What sort of pants-wetting nightmares I'm probably going to have this time.

If our next mission is going to be my last.

And of course, why us-why, out of all the billions of kids in the world, it was _us_ who got saddled with this terrible burden.

But this time, my thoughts were on a totally different track.

I used to think the idea of love at first sight was totally ridiculous, something which only happened in mushy romance novels and chick flicks. Or if it _did_ happen, it was more the result of bodily lust than anything else.

But quite to my surprise, I found my thoughts turning again and again to the newest member of our insane suicide squad, to the way she looked and laughed.

I know it makes no sense.

First of all, as human as she looked, I was still at least ninety percent certain that with her freaky yet kick-butt ability to throw rocks and dirt around with her mind, she was about as different from me as I was from a gorilla.

She'd also used that "earthbending" ability to give me a distinctly painful boot up the butt with a stone pillar, which is generally viewed by most guys as a major turnoff. Guess I wasn't most guys though.

You see, I realized I found Toph to be beautiful.

Very beautiful.

I'm hardly the type to gush, but I couldn't help but think of how her eyes had caught my attention, almond-shaped and Oriental, yet also a lovely, exotic misty green in color.

I liked how her bangs were so long, and how they covered Toph's face, giving a tomboyish, mysterious, almost rock-star type of look to her. I liked the way her hair looked, thick and black and soft, and tried to imagine what she'd look like with it flowing free.

She had a solid, toned body, robust yet sleek and alluring, like that of a hula dancer. I idly wondered for a few moments what it would be like to _watch_ her dance, muscles taut with slow, controlled power. Not to be creepy or anything. Oh, did I mention that often smug, always beautiful Cheshire Cat smile?

And I liked her personality too. I liked how despite being blind, she didn't let that stop her or define who she was-a lesson that Ax and his fellow Andalites could stand to learn. She was strong and confident and took no crap from anyone. Plus, for better or worse, she was bluntly honest and sincere.

Last but not least, she _definitely _had a sharp, sarcastic, funny sense of humor. Just like mine.

And as I finally drifted off, I decided that if Xena and Bird-Boy, a girl and a hawk, could love and have a relationship with each other, then Toph and I could do the same.

_So then Daredevil_, I thought, _I think I'll be joining you for the day tomorrow._

* * *

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!"

As her silvery giggling flowed through the morning air in the broad ravine, Toph's body automatically curled in on itself and twisted away from the hands of Antelope Boy, currently in human form as he tickled her bare abdomen.

Last night, after Ax had had enough grass to take the edge off his hunger, he'd carried the earthbender back to the cave and crouched to let her off. After taking a drink from the stream, she'd filled the metal pail with water and placed it next to her bed before forming a pair of protective stone gauntlets (which made her think of the Dai Li) and tossing more wood onto the fire for the night.

Then, after removing her sash, tunic and shirt, with Antelope Boy bedded down nearby, she'd bid him good night, then slipped under the horse blanket and gone to sleep for her second night in this weird new world.

Once more, the sounds of exotic birds had woken her from sleep. Far too eager and excited to sleep in this time, she'd taken a drink from the pail, gone outside to use the latrine, then started doing flexibility exercises in the ravine.

Hawk Boy had paid a visit during that time, telling her he was stopping by to say hello to her and Ax before returning to his meadow to hunt and that he hoped she had a fun day. He'd also told her that Tough Girl had been _**very**_ impressed to hear about Toph's prowess in battle against the Fire Nation's troops and the Dai Li, to say nothing about the airship fleet.

Yet according to Hawk Boy, hearing him tell her all about Toph's role in the Fire Nation's defeat had also made Rachel somewhat dejected-dejected because she hadn't been there to help her kick some firebender and Dai Li agent ass! They'd all laughed at that.

She'd asked if then if she had permission to acquire him as a morph.

After thinking for a few seconds, Hawk Boy had said that was fine, and glided down to land on a rock to the right of her.

Slipping her fingers through the feathers on his back, his skin had been amazingly warm to the touch, Toph remembered. He'd reminded her to concentrate, and as she'd done so, become drowsy and relaxed, just like the bat had.

Then she'd stepped back, he'd snapped alert, and told her that was it. She'd thanked him, and then he'd flown off, leaving her with _two_ creatures to morph now!

From what she understood, hawks apparently had amazing eyesight, and so she was quite eager to try this new morph out.

But not right then. For one thing, Antelope Boy said it was still too early in the day for something called "thermals" to form, which he said were columns of hot, rising air that made flying especially fun and effortless.

Plus, Cassie and her foster mom could come any minute, and they both figured she'd better greet them in a human body.

Seeing that she was only wearing her sarashi, wrist cuffs, and headpiece from the waist up, Antelope Boy had asked if, with so much of her natural skin exposed, she wanted to engage in a tactile activity he believed humans called tickling in the meantime, partly because he was curious about the practice and wanted to try it out for himself.

She decided it was okay with her, and he'd bent to human form to start.

The same sensory compensation that made Toph Beifong such a master earthbender and gave her such good hearing also made her quite ticklish indeed, and she girlishly squealed in laughter as Antelope Boy's human fingers danced over the sensitive skin of her inner arms, neck, back and toned belly, her body curving and limbs clutching in joyous reflex.

Ax seemed to be both fascinated and puzzled by the effect his fast-paced touches were having on her.

"It is amazing, knowing that just this simple pattern of quick touches can reduce you humans to such a state," he marveled. "Pat-urn. What is the basis behind it?"

"Who-hehehehehe-car-hehehehe-es-hehehehe-Ax? It's just-hee hee hee hee hee-fun!"

And then, through the palm of one of her hands, she happened to catch a type of tremor that made her blood run cold.

The vibrations produced by feet hitting the ground.

Metal feet. And _two_ pairs of them this time!

Much too close!

Terrible, gut-tightening memories welled up in her mind then, like pus flowing out from an infected wound, and Toph's foggy green eyes widened as she bodily shoved a confused Antelope Boy off of her and sprung to her feet.

While she'd been playing with Ax, stupidly allowing herself to be distracted, they'd taken the opportunity to sneak up on her!

Immediately, unthinkingly, she flung out her arms in a punching motion as she wildly _pushed _out with her chi down the ravine, directing the stone to do her bidding.

There was a pair of fearful, metallic, crunching _**CLANGS, **_and Toph heard both metal beings give a yelping cry of surprise as she sent each of them flying with a stone pillar to the chest.

They hit the ground hard, and spreading her arms apart, the master earthbender _pulled_ at each side of the gorge, breaking off a slab of rock that she raised into the air.

"Toph, stop!" Antelope Boy cried as he scrambled to get to his feet. "What are you doing?"

"Stay behind me!" she snapped as she held the slabs above the metallic, curiously dog-like things, now passively lying sprawled on the stones, raising them for the smashing blow. "No, just morph and run before you get blown up!"

One of them tried to get up, but immediately laid back down when Toph gave an earth-shaking stomp with her left foot, causing Ax to windmill and fall down again.

"If you two come any closer, or try to shoot fire at me, I _will_ smash you into scrap metal," she solemnly warned them, her voice low and dangerous as she stood tall and quivering, her shoulders hunched and arms outstretched.

Suddenly she heard Sunshine desperately yell from several paces behind the metal dog-men as she ran, hindered by a backpack, "For the love of God Toph, _don't do it!_"

"Bad Toph! No boulders! They come in peace!" Smart Aleck shouted in equal alarm from behind Cassie.

It cut through the earthbender's fear, bringing her to her senses.

Slowly but warily, she used her chi to move the pair of stone slabs through the air and back to their respective sides of the gorge, fusing them back into the rock, but with her hands still held palms up.

"Remarkable," one of the metal dog-people exclaimed in an awed, feminine voice as "she" sat upright.

"You were not lying when you spoke of her extraordinary powers, Marco," the other one said in a deeper, huskier, male tone as it turned its head towards Smart Aleck.

"Hey!" Toph snapped as she pointed at them and stomped her left foot. "Did I say you could talk or even si-"

"Calm yourself Toph!" Antelope Boy commanded. "The Chee are our allies."

"Yeah, so try not to be a jerk and go all 'Hulk Smash!" on them, okay?" Smart Aleck demanded. "I mean jeez, that's one heck of a way to greet your new mommy," he stated dryly.

Toph was distinctly surprised by Smart Aleck's words.

"Wait, _you're _the one who's going to play my 'mom' while I'm here on this Earth?" she asked in baffled disbelief, directing her attention to the female sounding metal dog-man. "One of you-uh, what are you weird metal dog-people exactly? And you can get up now," she added as an afterthought.

Despite her residual tension, Toph lowered her arms to her sides to indicate peace.

"We are known as the Chee, a race of androids, machines built to mimic natural lifeforms," the female sounding metal-dog-person-thing replied as she strode up to Toph with a respectful, unthreatening slowness and bowed in greeting.

"My true name is Yzark, but my human name for now is Olivia Ting, a Chinese-American citizen," she informed Toph as they then shook hands, "an identity that will make it all the easier for you both to blend in and feel at home in our society."

Chinese. There was that word again, and Toph frowned. In some unaccountable way, almost on the level of racial memory, it spoke to the earthbender somehow, generated a sense of familiarity deep down in her subconscious.

Just as strangely, Yzark's hand, instead of feeling slick and metallic to the touch as expected, felt no different than any other human hand, solid and warm and alive. How in Oma's name could that be?

"And I am Rasqtol, but I am currently known as Dean King," the male-sounding "Chee" introduced himself in turn. His hand too, felt curiously alive as well. "You can simply call me Mr. King however."

"So...you're going to be like my dad?" Toph ventured.

"No. I'm just one of Yzark's friends and fellow Chee," he replied warmly. "I simply came because I was curious to see you for myself. Plus, we Chee always love to make new friends."

The earthbender laughed then.

"Yeah, I know," Marco agreed. "Totally, mega ins-"

"It's not just that," Toph interrupted, her lips curved into a smile. "What's funny is that back in my world, I'm now the instructor of a school which teaches the art of metalbending-a discipline of earthbending that _I discovered_ by the way-and one of my current three students has _three_ Chee's in his name," she laughed. "It's Moo-Chee-Goo-Chee-La-Poo-Chee the Third, and that's what your names reminded me of," she snickered. "Understandably, he hates it when you call him that, and prefers to be known as The Dark One instead."

Smart Aleck snickered himself, loudly and long, before turning to Sunshine and commenting, "That's as bad as that one Hedwin Aldershott the Third guy."

"Jeez, I'd just want to crawl in a hole and stay there if my parents had named me something like that," Cassie agreed. "Anyway, you're actually a _teacher_ Toph?" she asked in amazement. "I had no clue."

"That's right Sunshine," Toph replied proudly as she grinned and folded her arms. "Since I discovered a whole new aspect to earthbending and how to master it, I might as well share it with the world, right? Plus I get to be the boss that way," she added smugly.

"You know, I like the way you think," Marco said flippantly.

"That means you're not just any earthbender then, but an earthbending _prodigy_ at that," a noticeably impressed Rasqtol marveled.

"Truly a powerful ally," Yzark agreed in amazement and excitement.

"Well, how nice of you to give the greatest earthbender in the universe her due!" she said with mock modesty.

"Now do you guys see what I mean?" Smart Aleck told both Chee. "With her crazy X-Men skills and now morphing ability, together with ours, I'd say things are looking up for us against those slugs for once. It's too bad you guys aren't willing to get your hands dirty for the cause as well," he added, his tone inexplicably bitter.

"Marco, enough." Cassie chided him.

Sensing the tension, Toph cut in with, "So you Chee all pass as humans huh?"

"Right," Yzark said, nodding her canine head. "We play the role of children with technology advanced enough to mimic the appearance and touch of a human, change that appearance as we progressively grow older, and when the time is appropriate, have our holographic disguise 'die,' at which point we start again as children."

"Whoa," Toph said softly. "That's just crazy."

"That pretty much sums it up," Marco wryly agreed.

"Speaking of disguises and morphing ability," Sunshine interrupted, "it's time we got you dressed and ready for the day," she announced as she shrugged the pack off her shoulders and placed it on the ground.

During this time, Antelope Boy had bent back into his true body.

Now, from behind her she "heard" him say, (Have a nice Saturday then everyone. I am now going back to my scoop to enjoy watching the special morning cartoons and These Messages,) he informed them eagerly before galloping off.

"See you later Antelope Boy!" Toph acknowledged.

"Bye Ax!" Sunshine said as she squatted over the pack.

There was a strange purring sound as she opened some kind of curious, strip-like fastener made of metal that curved around the pack's top and then opened it.

"Here's your clothes," she said as she reached in and took out a bundle. "Hope they'll be comfortable for you."

"Eh, I'll be fine Sunshine," Toph replied as she took them from her and turned in the cave's direction. "Like I said before, it's not the first time I've had to wear stuff that I normally wouldn't to help me blend in."

The undergarments, she decided, were the weirdest. Instead of a sarashi, there was something that went over her breasts which Sunshine called a "sports bra," and a sort of one-piece loincloth which was self-secured at the waist by some stretchy material called "elastic." According to Cassie, it was simply called "underwear."

The rest of the outfit was more familiar.

There was a loose, knee-length pair of pants that Cassie said were "shorts," which you secured with a "zipper," a fascinating device composed of two strips of metal teeth sown into the fabric. There was also a button at the top to put through a slit in the cloth.

Last of all, the bender then donned a form-hugging shirt Sunshine called a "halter top," very similar to what she'd worn in the Fire Nation, except with shoulder straps.

When she walked back out of the cave, dressed in her new outfit and her long hair flowing free to her hips, she felt Smart Aleck snap alert and his pulse quicken at the sight. He approved.

She angled her head in his direction and gave him a knowing, sidelong smirk. She knew what he was thinking.

Over the past sixteen months since Ozai's defeat, the earthbender's body had become somewhat curvier, her facial features more defined. She was, quite against her will, "a peony coming into bloom," to use her mother's words.

He sheepishly shuffled a bit in place, lowering his head as he said, "Uh, you look great there Toph."

"Thanks Smart Aleck."

"Let's start braiding all that hair now," Sunshine proposed as she took out a brush from the pack and walked up to Toph as the blind girl sat down, her legs crossed.

Despite the fact that personal hygiene had never exactly been a priority of Toph's, she had to admit it felt good to have someone brush her hair. Just like with Hawk Boy's hands last morning, the feel of the hairbrush's strokes was relaxing and soothing.

"You're pretty good at this Sunshine," she complimented.

Cassie laughed lightly. "I'd hardly say I'm a pro at this, but thanks anyway."

"If you ever want some really top-notch hair care, you could do worse than a couple hours with me," Yzark mentioned. "I've spent at least five 'lifetimes' playing the role of a hairdresser after all."

"Hmm. What do you do for a job right now?" Toph asked.

"I'm currently a blackjack dealer at the local casino," she replied. "That's a place where people go to gamble. It pays pretty well too."

"Where'd you get that bracelet on your upper arm?" Smart Aleck asked, taking notice. "It's pretty cool actually."

"Very cool," Toph agreed, lightly stroking the bracelet with her right hand and trying not to blush as she thought of Sokka. "It's made of metal from space you know."

"From a meteor? Sweet!" Marco replied. "Who gave it to you?"

"Totally," she agreed, grinning. "It's my prize possession. Anyway, I bent it out of some of the space iron Sokka, a very good friend of mine, gave me after he made a sword from the main uh, meteor."

"You mean he made an actual sword from a meteor?" Marco said in amazed, impressed disbelief. "Now _that_ is ultra-awesome! Your friend is so cool."

"He sure is," Toph agreed fondly. "Too bad he isn't here right now," she sighed. "You'd get along great with him, Smart Aleck. He's even your age too."

"What's your friend Sokka like Toph?" Cassie asked while she divided the bender's hair into two sections for braiding.

"Well, like I said, he's a very cool guy," she replied, blushing further at the thought of him and lowering her head. "He's funny, and sarcastic, and very smart-not that you can always tell at first glance though," she added wryly. "Plus, sometimes his pride and enthusiasm make him do dumb things, and on a regular basis. But he's also extremely clever and loyal and protective and VERY brave too. While we were traveling with Aang, he saved my life at least twice from firebenders you know," she added softly, ducking her head again.

"This Sokka sounds like a truly special guy then," Cassie said as she began to twist both sheaves of hair around each other.

"He really is," Toph said frankly, fondly.

"And by the way," she added, tilting her head toward the two Chee, "I'm sorry I attacked you like that with my earthbending. Good Oma, if I'd known..."

"It's forgiven," the Chee who called himself Mr. King assured her. "You were just obeying your instincts."

"Well, instinct didn't have much to do with it."

Apologetically, she haltingly explained, "You see, I thought...When I first felt you guy's footsteps...coming toward me and Antelope Boy...crazy, but I thought you were Combustion Man...and he'd brought a friend this time!"

"Combustion Man? Huh?" Smart Aleck snorted in confusion. "Who's _**that**_? Sounds like some kind of supervillain."

"Oh, he was a villain all right," Toph said grimly.

Quickly she explained to them about the extraordinary, supercharged firebender that could shoot explosive bolts of fire with his very brain, how he was perhaps the most terrible enemy she'd ever faced, how he'd put her and Katara in jail, and how he'd been so grimly, ruthlessly determined to kill Aang-as well as any of the Avatar's friends who got in his way. She also told them how Snoozles had put him down and saved them all with his weapon of choice as Cassie kept braiding her hair.

"I know thanks to Sokka's boomerang skills Combustion Man's dead and gone now," she went on. "And except for his arm and leg, he _was _still a man, while you Chee are totally nothing like him. But it was...such a surprise...a shock...and I reacted without thinking. I'm sorry I flipped out and attacked you guys like some hysterical spaz," she said in embarrassment as she facepalmed.

"You weren't hysterical at all," Yzark assured her. "You were simply reacting to something that you rightly associated with mortal danger, and so acted to preserve both your life and Aximilli's while he was defenseless in human morph, which is understandable."

"And also very noble," Mr. King added.

"Yeah. And believe us Toph, we know how you feel," Smart Aleck said pointedly. "To this day I _still _get the creeps and have to choke down the urge to either run away or wet myself-or possibly even do both-every time I see an ant," he informed her shakily.

"Oh yeah, Hawk Boy and Ax told me about that mission. Tobias said you screamed like you were being tortured when you finally snapped out of the ant's 'mind.'"

"Or complete lack of one."

"And don't even get me started about the termites," Sunshine shuddered as her pulse and posture changed in a way that indicated both fear and oddly, guilt.

"It's also kind of our fault," Marco admitted. "You'd think it would've occurred to one of us 'Hey, since Miss Daredevil uses vibrations to make sense of her world and tell what's coming her way, just maybe one of us should go ahead to explain that two metal dog robots are going be showing up shortly, but they're friendly, so don't panic, okay?'"

"Yeah, that was our bad," Cassie agreed. "We should've warned you. Sorry."

"Still, I feel pretty embarrassed all the same," Toph droned. "I mean, one of you guys is going to be my 'mom' so to speak, and that's how I greet you? I hope I didn't, well, _damage_ you too badly."

"A little, but not seriously-and certainly not enough to stop us from getting on with the day," Mr. King replied.

"We Chee know how to take our hard knocks," Yzark assured her.

Cassie meanwhile, had finished braiding the earthbender's hair, commenting, "Wow, that's sure a long one," as she tied it off at the end with something.

"Looks good though," Marco added, making Toph blush a bit.

"Now it's just time to put your shoes on and then we can go," Sunshine said as she stood up and walked around Toph, back to the open pack.

At that, the earthbender froze, suddenly hesitant.

"Um, shoes Sunshine? You mean as with soles? Sorry, but I need the soles of my feet to be bare in order to know what's going on around me and to earthbend. You could cut out the bott-"

"I know that," Cassie replied. "But there'll be times you'll want or need to go places around here where they won't let you in if you don't have some sort of footwear."

"Besides, people in our society tend to take notice if you go around barefoot or wearing partial shoes-including Controllers," Smart Aleck added.

"But then how am I going to be able to 'see' where I am? I guess I could make do with my hands, but they don-"

"I already thought of that, don't worry," Cassie reassured her. "And that's why I brought you these," she said, as the metalbender felt her put a pair of shoes in her hands. The material was thin, soft and pliable, and a bit fuzzy to the touch. Tanned leather, she realized.

They seemed somewhat familiar, and Toph tried to recall where she'd encountered footwear like this before. Then she remembered.

Both Sugar Queen and Snoozles wore boots quite similar to this, also made out of tanned leather, but longer on the leg. Mukluks, the siblings called them.

"They're called moccasins," Cassie casually informed her, picking up on the other girl's puzzlement. "They're made out of deer hide, and I figured since the energy you use to earthbend has no problem passing back and forth through your skin, it should pass through the bottom of a shoe made of animal skin equally well."

"Brilliant thinking Sunshine!" Toph said appreciatively. "Let's see how it works out in practice though," she proposed as she slipped the "moccasins" on and stood up.

To her relieved delight, there was surprisingly little loss of detail when she tested her seismic sense. The signals from her environment that came up through her feet weren't as well defined as they were when she was barefoot, but nor were they close to choppy or fuzzy either. Yes, she could definitely manage.

"How is your ability to pick up vibrations in those Toph?" Cassie asked.

"A lot better than I thought it would be, actually," she replied as she began to walk around, continuing to experimentally send and analyze signals through the ground. "Not as good as without the shoes, but I'm still getting at least eighty percent of what I normally do. Like I said, you made a clever choice Cassie, picking these for footwear."

"Thanks for the compliment. Glad they worked out for you."

"Can you still earthbend in them though?" Marco inquired.

At that, Toph turned in his direction and playfully _tugged_ the stone underneath Smart Aleck's feet, causing him to yelp and briefly flail his arms before landing on his butt.

"I think that answers my question then," he dryly muttered as Toph and Cassie both laughed.

After Smart Aleck dusted himself off and the earthbender had had an apple and another pair of the strange, but good granola bars for breakfast, all five of them filed out of the ravine and headed towards Sunshine's farmhouse and barn.

It didn't escape Toph's notice how Marco oh-so casually sidled up on her right side and kept pace with her, or the way his pulse spiked.

"Like I told you before," Sunshine mentioned, "we can never be too careful when it comes to keeping the Yeerks from finding out what or who we are. So whenever we're going to be out in public, we're going to call you by a different name Toph, for both our safety and yours."

"Like an undercover mission. Okay, so what's my new title?" the earthbender inquired as she tried to get used to the strange feel of the shoes.

"Well, I did some research last night, looking for ideas," Cassie replied, "and I decided either Zhenzhu or Shitou suited you the best."

"I'm liking Zhenzhu as a name," Toph decided. "While I've never actually seen one, I really like the way pearls feel in my hands, and I think it's pretty cool how they come from a living animal instead of the ground. So Zhenzhu Beifong it is. But how did you know what those names meant? How is it that there's a language in your world exactly the same as mine?" she asked in wonder as she turned toward the other girl.

"We don't know," Smart Aleck shrugged. "We call your language Chinese, and the same goes for the people who you look almost exactly like on our planet, except none of them have eyes your color. But _why _it's the same is something only the Ellimist could tell you. Take it from me, the best thing to do is just to accept the craziness and go with it."

"This is getting really, _really_ weird and freaky," the stunned and bewildered earthbender stated.

"And the prospect of fighting brain-stealing aliens and turning into animals while living on a whole different planet wasn't already?" Marco quipped.

"It's okay Toph. Maybe your people in the Earth Kingdom happened to develop the same language and culture and appearance as the people of China in our world just by sheer chance," Cassie kindly proposed.

"I find that _very_ hard to believe, Sunshine."

"Still, it's not inconceivable. Anyway, just don't worry about it."

"Yeah. Somehow I just have a feeling this whole business about China and Chinese people would only get me more confused if you tried to explain it to me, and I have enough to confuse me right now."

"As for your history," Olivia/Yzark supplied, "you're a foster child I adopted two weeks ago from an orphanage in Nanjing, a city in Jiangsu Province, where you lived the first fourteen years of your life."

"Nanjing. Got ya. What else? Any story I should give for why my eyes are a different...color?" she asked, her voice tinted with wonder as she remembered last night's experience morphing the bat.

"That's definitely going to be a tough one to explain," Marco commented in worry.

"I know," Yzark agreed. "But there are people in northwestern India with green eyes-and you can tell anyone who asks that one of them married into your mother's side of the family long ago Toph."

"I've got no idea where or what this India place is, but okay, I guess-and hope-that'll work as an explanation. Anything else I should know to keep people in the dark about who I really am? Oh, what should I say about why was I at the orphanage in the first place?"

"Well," Marco replied solemnly, troubled, "although China's a pretty cool country and all in general, one of the more unpleasant things about their culture is that families prefer sons over daughters to the point where they may reject a baby girl...or even leave her somewhere to die."

A chilling stream of dismay flowed through the blind earthbender at the idea. Yet she wasn't all that shocked.

"That sometimes happens in both the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation too," she stated quietly, turning her head slightly away from him. "Not often, but I know that it's done occasionally-and since I was born both a girl _and _blind, I guess I should count myself lucky my own parents didn't do it for real," she shuddered.

Eager to shove the distressing thought away, she went on, "Anyway, so that's it for my fake history?"

"More or less," Yzark confirmed.

Soon they came to the edge of the forest, and now Toph could perceive things a lot more clearly as the trees opened up into extensive fields.

Twenty paces away from the forest's border was a sturdy wooden fence which extended a long distance in both directions, and all five of them climbed over it. It certainly didn't escape the earthbender's notice how Smart Aleck went over before her and then gave her his hand as she climbed over the top rail for support.

Her cheeks warmed: she couldn't say she minded his chivalry.

When her moccasin-clad feet were back on the ground again and they all continued heading for the farmhouse and barn about 480 paces away, Toph felt the tremors of a group of three large animals nearby and to the left through the thin leather soles, ones that walked on four long, lean legs like Ax and had a single large hoof on each one.

Their bodies were stout and barrel-shaped, with thick yet graceful necks, and heavy, deep-jawed heads. Like Antelope Boy, they seemed to be wary, guarded creatures, raising their heads to look at them or other things as they grazed.

"What sort of animals are those, Sunshine?" Toph asked curiously.

"They're horses," Cassie replied fondly.

"Horses? Just horses, not ostrich horses? Never mind, the fact they have two extra legs is enough proof of that," she dismissed, shaking her head.

"Ostrich horses? Say what?" Marco said in equally baffled confusion.

"Man, the animals on your planet sure sound pretty weird Toph," Sunshine stated. "Of course, ours must be equally crazy to you," she added in dry amusement.

"Hah, you're telling me Sunshine," the earthbender chuckled. "Anyway, can I 'acquire' one of your horses? If one of you guys gets badly hurt in a fight, I could carry you to safety that way, for one thing."

"I've actually done that with Jake before once, early on," Cassie told her.

"Don't forget how I, Marco the Marvelous, helped out in gorilla morph," Smart Aleck proudly reminded Cassie.

"Don't worry, I haven't Marco," she appreciatively replied. "But yeah, you can acquire one of the horses. Being able to morph one and just run and run and run out in the open spaces like that is _such_ a blast Toph, believe me," she enthused. "Plus, they can see a wider range of colors than the bat you morphed yesterday too, though not as many as a human."

"Sweetness," the earthbender grinned, placing her fingertips together.

Turning in the direction of the horses, Sunshine then shouted, "Penelope! Come here Penelope!"

At those words Toph felt one of the horses tense and look up from its grazing, in their direction. Then it unhurriedly walked up to their group.

As the horse came up to her and Toph came up to it, Cassie told her, "This is my favorite horse, Penelope. She loves to be petted, so go right ahead. Just make sure you approach her from the side so she doesn't spook and kick."

"Okay Sunshine."

The sharp, pungent smell of the horse was strong in her nostrils, and the earthbender could hear the mare's snorting breath clearly as she reached out and ran her hand along Penelope's broad, muscled flank, covered in sleek, short hair.

As the horse turned her head to see Toph better, the blind girl concentrated and considered the horse, how she was a creature born to run, that belonged to the open spaces as much as she belonged to the earth, how she was a herding animal that lived and loved to be part of a group, how she was a wary, yet peaceful creature that only fed on grass, harming no one.

The horse's elongated, deep-jowled head lowered and swiveled away from Toph then, drooping toward the ground as her breathing became shallower, and she simply stood there as if dazed.

And Toph knew that she was successfully getting a third creature to bend her body into. All this speed and magnificence was becoming a part of her.

In a few moments, the horse perked up again, shaking her head.

"Thanks Penelope," Toph told her as she petted the animal one more time and then turned away to continue on.

After a few minutes, she heard Marco suddenly say, "Wait a moment. Everyone stop for a bit."

"Huh?" Toph replied as she turned her head back and forth in confusion. "Is something wrong? I don't feel anything around here."

"Nothing's wrong Toph," Smart Aleck said, his body angled to the right and regarding something on the ground that Toph couldn't detect, about two paces away. "I just found some horse apples over here."

"Is that a kind of fruit?"

Cassie and Marco both sputtered in amusement as Mr. King laughed and told her, "It's actually a slang term for horse dung Toph."

"So, definitely NOT fruit," she responded dryly. "Why's it even important to point out then?" she asked in puzzlement, spreading her hands apart.

"Because wherever there's fresh horse manure, there are flies too," Cassie said.

As Toph felt the other girl's fingers lightly grasp her right wrist and steer her in the dung's direction, the revolting realization came to her in a flash then.

"You mean an _insect_?" she replied in shock as her heart sank. "I'll have to body bend into a _bug_?" she demanded of Cassie. "Are you serious?"

"You don't have to morph one right now," Sunshine assured her, "just acquire it for later, for the missions where we'll need to infiltrate and spy on Yeerk activities. Flies are so common on this planet that you'll be able to go anywhere without anyone really noticing you," she added.

"That still doesn't mean I like the idea of becoming a gross, helpless bug," the earthbender protested, shuddering.

"If it's any comfort," Marco piped up from behind her, "I **hate** morphing bugs too. It's disgusting. But I make myself do it anyway."

Cassie nodded. "Morphing insects and spiders has also helped us escape with our lives from Controllers more times than I can count. Besides, flies are amazingly agile and _fast_ in the air."

"You can land pretty much anywhere too, in any position, and change direction quicker than you can blink," Marco pointed out. "It's nasty, but oh so cool!"

They said that like being a fly was a great thing. Like being an insect was something everyone should want to do.

"Well, okay," Toph sighed reluctantly. "I'll acquire and morph the nasty things if I must-even though it gives me major oogies," she muttered, thinking of Snoozles. "Just tell me where I should kneel and hold my arm Cassie."

Sunshine did so, and the earthbender held that position for about a minute, the grass tickling her bare knees and calves as she tried not to breathe in the sharp, herbal reek of the horse manure just in front of her, her left arm held rigid just a few finger widths above it as she listened to the flies buzz about in the morning sun.

The flies had fled in a panicked, buzzing cloud as the bender had approached their breakfast and knelt down.

Now they slowly began to return, and soon Toph felt one land on her upturned hand, its six hairy legs tickling her palm as it walked. Another fly, more heavily built, also landed on her palm as well.

Reluctantly, the blind bender focused on them both, and the bodies of the fly duo sagged as a little of their DNA mingled with hers.

They sprung into the air as she got to her feet, and then turned to keep walking.

As they walked through a gateway in the wooden fence and came close to the barn, Toph began to detect various smells.

Some were familiar, like animal urine, various flowers, dust, hay, straw, rotting fruit under the trees, and the sour scent of bird poop.

Others were more exotic, and so overpowering they made her nose wrinkle in disgust as she was introduced to the odors of rubber tires, various petroleum products, and the like.

"Smells getting to yuh?" Marco asked, as she heard Cassie shut and secure the heavy metal gate behind them.

"Oh Oma, yeah," Toph said empathetically. "They're awful."

"Yeah, I don't really care for them either," Cassie agreed. "You'll just need to get used to them though, I guess-and this is nothing compared to the city."

"Great!" she said sarcastically.

In the distance, she could faintly feel deep, rumbling yet surprisingly muffled vibrations and even more clearly, hear strange, rapid, here-and-gone _ZOOM_ sounds, each one evidently produced by something moving very fast, about as fast as the tank Psycho Princess and her friends had chased them in soon after she'd joined Aang and the others.

She figured they were traveling on some type of road-whatever _they_ were.

Toph was perplexed, her forehead wrinkling in abject confusion as she kneeled and pressed her right hand against the ground.

"What's making those sounds?" she asked her companions.

"Vehicles," Cassie answered. "The smaller, more common ones are called automobiles, or just cars, and we use them to move ourselves and our things from place to place. The bigger ones we have are called trucks, and we generally use them to move lots of cargo around."

Suddenly reminded of carts and carriages, Toph put forward, "I'm guessing they're being driven on some type of road, like the gravel one that leads to this yard."

"You got it," Marco said.

"What's it made out of?"

"Well, you ever heard of tar Toph?" he asked. "Or pitch?"

"Of course Smart Aleck. Nasty stuff though. It's all sticky and you can't see anything through it," she muttered contemptuously.

"Ah. Well, people make roads in our world by spreading that stuff over a dirt base," he explained. "The tar dries hard, and then people drive their vehicles over it at great speed."

"Speaking of great speed," Olivia cut in, the android's tone becoming serious and concerned, "I'd just like to say right now Toph that one of the most important things you should know to stay safe in our society is to never, ever, _ever_ get in the path of a moving vehicle."

"So they can be dangerous then?"

"Oh gosh yes," Cassie replied emphatically. "They're all metal, and all the deer, pigs, and even bears we get here after they've been struck by cars, and most of all their injuries, are more than enough proof of that."

Marco nodded. "Even with your metalbending ability-an ability I'm just a bit eager to see you display, I might add-the drivers go so fast that you'd still be toast."

"And even if the person is driving slowly, it's considered more than a bit rude to be blocking their path," Mr. King mentioned.

"So in other words, don't get in the way of these cars or trucks unless I want to be a bloody smear."

"Right," Dean said.

"Well, moving on, I'm feeling two of what you guys call vehicles right here," she told them. "Their wheels are made of some strange material that's interfering with my tremor sight though. I'll have to take one of these shoes off to get a better view," she declared.

"Then go ahead Daredevil."

For the earthbender, there was nothing like having your bare sole against the ground, and now Toph could get a better picture, force more of her chi through the weird, resilient, stretchy yet tough material that encased the wheels of both vehicles.

"One is kind of like a way smaller, boxier version of a Fire Nation battle tank-it's a really long story-"she quickly added, sensing the puzzlement of her human companions, "except the wheels are a lot smaller for its size and not sticking out to the sides."

"That would be the SUV I brought Dean here in," Olivia informed her.

"And it'll be bringing you to the animal sanctuary later," Cassie added.

_Oh Goody,_ Toph thought unenthusiastically, her face falling at the prospect. If this 'SUV' was anything like the underwater metal boats Sokka had conceived of, she would be spending the whole trip wrestling with the urge to empty her guts out from the harsh, jangling, overwhelming vibrations.

"I'm also feeling another of these 'vehicles' in that big shed nearby," she went on, "with two wheels that are kind of small on the front, and two even bigger wheels on the back. There's also something with four wheels underneath attached to it, something that has a bottom shaped like a rectangle and metal sides around it."

"That's my dad's tractor and the trailer we use to haul stuff," Cassie said breathlessly, in wonder. "And you were able to tell all that just from vibrations sent through the ground? That's incredible!"

"Yep," the master earthbender grinned proudly, raising her head and crossing her arms smugly. "No one does it quite like me Sunshine."

"Most impressive," Mr. King heartily concurred.

"I love it when you guys say that," she sighed happily.

Then Toph felt one of the "vehicles" slow on the main tar road before peeling off onto the gravel one that led to the house.

"Someone's coming this way," she announced.

"That's probably my dad," Cassie said. "He often goes grocery shopping on Saturday mornings after making coffee and checking on the animals."

"Remember, false name," Marco cautioned.

"I know Smart Aleck," she muttered in irritation.

Soon the earthbender felt a rumbling, humming vibration through her feet, and heard the vehicle's wheels crunch against the gravel as it casually rumbled down the dirt road toward them.

Now wearing both moccasins again, Toph stood where she was as the car came to a stop, parked, and the right-hand door opened with a pop as Cassie's father stepped out of the car.

"Hey Cassie," he greeted her as he raised his left hand.

"Hey Dad," she replied as she came up to him and hugged him. Toph couldn't help but feel a bit envious about how their father/daughter relationship was clearly much warmer than anything she'd ever known with her own father.

"Hey there Walter," Marco said politely. "How ya doing?"

"I'm doing great Marco," he replied. "Nice to see you too, Olivia, Dean."

"You too Walt," Mr. King said.

Toph then sensed Sunshine's dad turn toward and take notice of her as he kindly asked, "And what would your name be, young lady?"

"I'm Zhenzhu," she smoothly told him in her accented English. "Zhenzhu Beifong. Nice to meet you Walter," she said as she pressed her hands and bowed.

"Dad, you know how you and Mom sometimes tell me it would be nice if I had more friends?" Cassie then told him.

"Yeah," Walter replied as he turned back to his daughter, a little uncomfortable at having the topic broached in public.

"Well, I met Zhenzhu here with Olivia just a few days ago in town," she lied, "said hi to her-then I swear, as soon as we began talking, we got a real rapport going between the two of us."

"Yeah, your daughter's really cool," Toph nodded as she lightly smiled.

"So she's yours then?" Walter asked Yzark. "I didn't know you'd adopted a kid Olivia."

"That's right," the disguised android replied. "She's originally from Nanjing, where she lived at a home for blind children, and I just brought her here two weeks ago."

"Ah. How do you like it here in America, Zhenzhu?" Walter asked, drawing her back into the conversation.

Although she had no idea what America meant, Toph expertly replied, "I like it very much. It's fun and exciting."

"That's great," he nodded approvingly. "I'm guessing you'll be going to the local school for the blind here in town?"

"I'll be starting next week," she fibbed. "I'm excited, yet kind of nervous about what it'll be like too."

"Well, you seem pretty smart Zhenzhu, so I know you'll manage," he genially assured her with a light slap on the shoulder before turning away to head back to his car. She couldn't help but smile. She decided she liked Cassie's dad.

"Wait a moment," he suddenly said as something struck him and he looked down at Toph's feet. "Aren't those your moccasins Cassie?" he asked in confusion. "What are they doing on her feet?"

The earthbender felt her breath catch in her throat as she scrambled to make up a decent excuse.

But Cassie got there first, telling her own father, "They're not mine at all Dad. They belong to Zhenzhu, and just happen to be the same brand as mine."

As clearly as the ring of a gong, Toph felt the shame and guilt emanating from the other girl as she lied right to her father's face, her muscles tensing ever so slightly and voice shifting pitch a little.

_Poor Sunshine,_ she realized in sympathy. _She has to lie to her own parents, violate their trust on a regular basis as part of being an Animorph, and it tears her apart with remorse and shame._

She could definitely understand that feeling too.

Olivia nodded to back up the ruse. "I bought them at a thrift store, which is why they're a bit worn. They still look great though."

"Yeah, they do. And it's great for the planet too," Walter agreed in approval.

"Anyway Dad," Sunshine spoke up, "I told her about where we live, and the Wildlife Clinic. Well, she thought that sounded pretty neat, so last night she called me and asked if you or Mom would let her visit the animals," she rattled off. "I said you guys probably wouldn't mind. You don't, do you Dad?"

"As for me, I'm just here for the ride," Marco said dismissively. "To hang out."

Toph of course, knew better, and faintly smirked.

"Well," Walter doubtfully replied as the bender sensed him glance from Cassie to her, "that's kind of pretty short notice Cassie, but sure, she may go in the barn and touch some of the animals. That's okay with you, right?" he asked Olivia.

"That's why I brought her here."

"Thanks Dad."

"Yeah, thanks so much!" Toph said excitedly, inwardly ecstatic at the certainty now of gaining so many new ways of fighting, moving, flying, of _seeing_.

"No problem Zhenzhu," he replied amiably as he opened one of the back doors and took out a bag of groceries. "Hope it's a fun experience for you-and remember Cassie, make sure you use good judgment and don't allow any of the animals to become too stressed."

"I will Dad," she assured him as she led Toph towards the barn, Marco walking just behind.

When the three Animorphs were inside, (Olivia was still talking to Walter outside, while Mr. King was helping him with unloading the groceries) the earthbender slid her right foot forward and sent out another pulse as she entered the cool, straw-smelling building.

The building had a wooden floor, and was divided into three distinct sections by wooden walls.

Toph's attitude towards wood was an ambivalent one. It transmitted vibrations pretty well, and certainly a lot better than sand or mud, but still not as well as good old earth or metal. Worst of all, it was impossible to bend if you got into trouble.

She could detect large shelves, some metal, others wooden, lining the walls. They supported various cages. Dozens of cages. Occupied cages.

Around her she heard various animals and birds restlessly scrabble and flap and scratch and chirp and squawk.

"Well, here we are," Cassie announced. "We have a goshawk here for you to acqu-"

"What's a goshawk?" Toph asked, cocking her head.

"It's a bird of prey," she explained. "They're very agile birds, very fast, and can go through amazingly narrow spaces. They'll even go after prey on foot if they have to, and man, you should see them when they go after a grouse or squirrel!"

"Um, you do know I'm not exactly capable of doing that, right Sunshine?" the earthbender dryly commented as she folded her arms. "Sounds like a pretty awesome bird though."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Cassie muttered in embarrassment. "Anyway, I'm going to get the goshawk out of his cage now and bring it to you."

"Okay."

She heard Cassie flick a latch, carefully open a door to one of the cages, then a brief scrabbling and flapping as she grabbed the bird and tucked it into her chest before approaching her again.

"Okay Toph, now just reach out and touch his chest," she said. "He'll probably give you a few light pecks, but birds of prey basically only use their beaks for eating and drinking, so don't worry."

"If you say so Sunshine," Toph replied as she reached forward.

Just before her left hand made contact with the bird's keeled breast, she felt a light, poking pinch on the back of her hand. The goshawk did it a second time as she laid it against him and focused.

Then he became peaceful as the process started.

"So, what would you like to acquire next?" Cassie asked as she returned the goshawk to his cage.

"I don't know," Toph shrugged as she spread her arms out. "A lot of these animals and birds are like nothing I've ever come across before, so you guys will have to tell me more about them and which ones you think are the best to have."

"Still," she added, "one thing I _do _know is that if I'm in some sort of war with slugs that take over people's brains, I want to have a good range of morphs for every situation. It's just like what I learned while traveling with Aang and fighting the Fire Nation, that you need to have people on your side with all sorts of different skills when you go into battle-although earthbending and metalbending are still the best ones of course."

"Exactly," Marco said pointedly. "Couldn't agree more Toph."

"Well, let's see what Smart Aleck and I can figure out for you then," Cassie proposed.

Over the next hour and a half, after listening to a brief rundown of each animal's capabilities and the recommendations of her two new comrades, the Blind Bandit took in the genetic codes of quite a few members of the local fauna.

A raven, which Cassie told her were very intelligent birds, capable of imitating human speech, had good stamina, were social, and pretty common in the area. Marco couldn't pass up the chance to acquire it either.

A "black-phase" red fox, a creature which Toph already knew to be swift, agile, and cunning.

A gull, an excellent morph for moving around the city and flying over the ocean. Plus, it was natural for these birds to flock together.

She placed her hand against the luxuriously furred, yet horrendously, gag-inducingly pungent back of a docile striped skunk, possessing a weapon that made even bears and wolves head for the hills.

Shakily, she brushed her fingers against the thick, scaly, cylindrical body of a western diamondback rattlesnake while a focused Cassie expertly kept it restrained, and then a Northern Pacific rattler, which Marco also acquired.

A mink, writhing muscle covered in silky fur, at home on land as it was in the water.

A badger, stocky and agressive, but so disappointingly small when compared to her hybrid teachers and masters. Plus, although they were apparently amazing diggers and fighters, it was still a shame that they couldn't earthbend.

A long-tailed weasel, which apparently had no qualms about going right down the burrows of rats and attacking them. Toph liked that sort of gumption. Liked it a lot.

A great horned owl, supreme and silent hunter of the night, with talons strong enough to snap a woodchuck's neck.

A hundred-pound feral pig, a sow that threw herself against the bars of her sturdy metal cage, dense and bristly underneath the earthbender's palm. (Since pigs were an invasive species that did huge amounts of damage to crops and native species, any that showed up at the clinic were usually put down. "However," Cassie told Toph in knowing, sly amusement, "if we ever happen to get a pig with especially pretty markings, or that happens to be particularly cute, or has a _really_ sweet personality and at least one other member of our family feels the same way, then it's very possible it'll live to roll in the mud again.")

A meek red-sided garter snake.

A snow goose, built to fly all the way here from the Arctic-and back for the summer.

Last was a frenetic gray squirrel, an amazingly intelligent, matchless climber and jumper.

"Whew, thanks Sunshine," Toph said appreciatively as she withdrew her hand from the squirrel's jerking, furry, twisting body. "Not only for telling me about what these animals can do and how awesome they are, but definitely also for taking them out and holding them steady for me to pet and acquire."

"Hey, you're welcome," Cassie said as she returned the squirrel to his cage.

"Well, now that you've gotten all the morphs you wanted here," Marco commented as he idly rubbed his hands together, "let's go get Olivia and get ready for a trip to Juniper Hill Animal Sanctuary."

"Yeah, let's get me a cat!" Toph cried, enthusiastically punching the air with one fist, and punching Marco's shoulder with the other.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, jerking away. "Jeez, what was that for?"

"That's just how I show affection Smart Aleck."

"If that's how you show affection, I'd hate to see how you show displeasure," he mumbled, clearly not happy.

As they left the barn though, Toph felt him sidle up alongside her, then firmly elbow her in the ribs. And she smiled.

* * *

**Toph's assumed name, if you haven't guessed, means pearl in Chinese.**

**Two of you have asked me if Crayak will sent his own powerful pawn to counter Toph's 'interference.' Right now I plan to just have the Yeerks be opposition enough. Still, I can definitely tell you that Crayak is not stupid. He knows damn well what the Ellimist just did with Toph and why, and it really grates his biomechanical gears. So she _will_, somehow, someway, have dealings with him before all this is over...**

**Moving on, Toph sure acquired a LOT of animals to morph here didn't she? Let's take some time to review the list, in case you weren't paying attention.**

**So far we have...Big brown bat, red-tailed hawk, horse, common housefly, northern bluebottle fly, northern goshawk, common raven, red fox, western gull, striped skunk, western diamondback rattlesnake, Northern Pacific rattlesnake, mink, American badger, long-tailed weasel, horned owl, feral pig, snow goose, red-sided garter snake, and gray squirrel. Whew indeed!**

**Part 2 to come later!**

**Please read and review.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hello, this is me again, Nathan, with another chapter for you. I hate to beat a dead horse here-or perhaps more appropriately, a dead Andalite (Something tells me that's a sight Visser 3 would _love_ to see), but please take the time if you can to tell me what you think, if a chapter was awesome, or I could do better. One minute. Sixteen words. That's all.**

* * *

Tentatively, Toph guided her body sideways into the gap between the "car's" right back door and main body, sliding into the shallow depression in the leather seat.

As always, the sensation of being parted from the earth made her feel uncomfortable, vulnerable, and the awareness that she was now sitting in one of these weird new "vehicles" did nothing to alleviate it.

Still, the leather seats were nice against her butt and skin, and unlike a wooden cart or carriage, this "car" was primarily made of metal, something she could get the pulse of.

She heard Smart Aleck open and entering through the left door, telling her, "Uh To-I mean Zhenzhu, you might want to close the door before we get going," as he took a seat and slammed his own door with an airy _THUD_!

"Is there a handle on the inside?" she asked as she reached out and stroked the inner door with her right hand.

"Yeah, it's a little metal bar in the middle of the door. No, lower. A bit to the left. Yeah, there!" he said as her fingers found it and tugged the door shut.

"Thanks Smart Aleck."

"Any time Daredevil," he said wryly. "Now if you don't mind, let me help you with your seatbelt," he proposed, his seat producing a sputtering creak as he leaned toward her.

"What's a seatbelt?" Toph asked in confusion, brow wrinkling.

"It's a sturdy cloth belt that keeps you strapped into your seat in case the car crashes," he replied. "There's one hanging loosely just to your right. Okay, now pull the metal buckle part across your chest and give it to me to buckle it in."

She did so, feeling the tension in both strips of waxed cloth as they slid out of the holes.

Then she felt Smart Aleck's fingers, warm and solid, sliding over hers as he took hold of the buckle and secured it with a distinct _click_. The contact only lasted a few moments, but the touch made a light, awkward-feeling shudder course through her and the backs of her ears flush.

She heard Sunshine open the front passenger side door and place her backpack, now filled with some of her textbooks for school to read, on the floor before getting in herself. She would help direct Olivia to their destination, Juniper Hill Animal Refuge.

As for Rasqtol/Mr. King, he would simply _**run**_ back to his home in town once they were gone!

"You fine back there Toph?" she inquired.

"Yep," giving Cassie a smile and playful thumbs-up.

Olivia then got in the driver's seat, and buckled her own seatbelt.

"Here we go guys," she commented before turning on the "car," which leapt to life with a sudden, purring _whirrrr_.

It slowly lurched underneath the earthbender's sensitive feet, and then began moving on its wheels, guided by the Chee.

Toph rapidly decided she hated riding in a car. The constant shock of the engine's pistons retracting and slamming in their cylinders, the thudding of the wheels on the dirt road and then the smoother tar one, sent an overpowering, constant earthquake of vibrations through the chassis and up into her feet and butt.

For a person whose seismic sense could perceive the footsteps of a spider from four paces away, tell if a litter of baby rat-moles was asleep or nursing under their mother in the burrow, the repeated, banging shock of it all was almost unbearable.

It jolted her teeth, gave her a terrible headache, and made her breakfast roil inside her with nausea. She had no idea who in this world's past had come up with these evil-smelling, stupid, dangerous, shaking steel boxes on wheels, these blasted "cars," but she deeply wished then that she could somehow go back in time and fill their body with sharp, pointy bits of metal before entombing them a thousand paces below the surface of the earth for inventing this kind of transportation. No, make that ten thousand!

Sensing and hearing her distress, her new companions tried to alleviate her misery as best they could.

Olivia tried to go slow whenever it was prudent and was careful with the turns.

Cassie, Oma bless her, gave Toph two of her bulky textbooks, one to sit on, another to rest her moccasin-clad feet upon in the hope that all the paper would help to buffer the jangling vibrations.

And to the bender's relief, it really did help. Somewhat.

As for Smart Aleck, he either occasionally stroked her back to comfort her or held her left hand in his right one, telling her "Just hang in there Toph. It's not far. You'll be okay."

Even through her nausea, the contact made her heart jump in her chest and her breath catch in her throat as her cheeks and upper neck were infused with a tropical heat. She had no idea he had such a considerate side to him.

Yet it also made her confused and irritated, even nervous. Her feelings weren't directed at Marco, not really. Rather, they were directed more at her own dumb, silly body more than anything else. It bothered her whenever she wasn't in control of something, her own body most of all.

In the end, the nausea was too much to endure, and she moaned out, "Olivia, stop, stop! I'm gonna be sick!"

"Hang on!" the Chee begged as she threw the car to the side of the road and pulled onto the shoulder with a light crunching of gravel before turning off that horrid engine.

No sooner had she done so than Toph, fighting wildly to delay the inevitable for just a little longer, unbuckled her seatbelt, scrabbled for the metal handle, and popped open the door before _leaping_ outside. She had just enough time to hunch over and pull her braid out of the way with her left hand before her jaws cracked open and she retched into the grass, the smell like a punch to her sensitive nostrils.

"Oh Toph..." Sunshine said sadly as the earthbender, shaky and woozy, sucked in air and spat out the acid-tasting dregs. "You poor thing."

After taking a few minutes to recover, Toph steeled herself to get back in the accursed car, where Marco helpfully buckled her in again.

"You feel any better now?" he asked sympathetically. "Puking's never any fun, but jeez, did you ever-"

"I hate riding in these cars," was Toph's response as she sulkily crossed her arms in front of her. "I hate them, and I never want to ride in one again."

"I'm sorry Toph," Olivia said with a sigh as she turned the engine on again. "We didn't expect this to be so hard on you. We'll be at the sanctuary soon though, I promise. Can you hang in there for just a bit longer?"

"I guess," she said feebly. And hey, at least she didn't have to puke anymore. "I'll try. But I could just _kill_ for some ginger candy or tea right now," she said longingly.

"Uh, why would you want to eat or drink something if you're sick enough that you just threw up?" Marco asked in confusion.

"Ginger's a natural remedy for vomiting and just an upset stomach in general," Sunshine explained to him, "and quite an effective one too. We use a good deal of natural remedies at my house," she added to inform the blind girl.

"So, what's this Juniper Hill Animal place we're going to like, Sunshine?" Toph inquired from her curled position, partly to distract herself from her misery, partly out of genuine curiosity. "You ever been there before yourself?"

"Yeah, and it's pretty cool," Cassie replied, warming to the subject. "It's owned by a guy named Doug Oppel and his wife Sophie, and they mostly have North American-that's the name of our landmass-animals here, which found a home with them for a bunch of different reasons: they were too badly hurt to ever be set free again, became too dependent on human care, were former pets that their owners couldn't handle anymore or weren't supposed to be keeping, were orphaned, stuff like that. They have different types of deer and goats roaming around the grounds that you can pet and feed, a pond full of trout that you can throw food to, and a pen with wolves that you can go inside with and pet! "

"You can pet wolves there?" Toph asked in amazement as she perked up. "Awesome," she grinned.

"Very awesome," Cassie agreed. "And of course, there's the cougar interactions."

"You know," she went on, "a lot of so-called sanctuaries are basically these horrible roadside, ramshackle tourist traps where either the happiness and safety of the animals takes a back seat to how much money the owners can make, or out of the kindness of their hearts they keep on taking in more and more animals until one day they realize there's _too_ many now for them to properly take care of. Either way, the poor animals end up living in miserable conditions and may even die."

"Mmmm," Toph frowned. "That's too bad."

"But Doug and Sophie really do put their animals first," Cassie said approvingly. "They give them big, natural enclosures, feed them well, and give them the chance to interact and have interesting experiences with visitors each day. Nor do they breed them just to make cute babies that'll grow up to take up more room later on...room that could be used for other animals in need," she added.

"That's good. Sounds like you know these people pretty well, Sunshine."

"Well, somewhat. Both my dad and mom have worked with Doug and Sophie in the past, giving them advice on how to treat sick animals, and sometimes providing an animal with veterinary care that they couldn't provide at the sanctuary's hospital, so I've met them several times before. And since they know me, they'll definitely be making sure you have a great time too."

About forty minutes after leaving Cassie's farm, Olivia's SUV pulled into the sanctuary's dirt parking lot and came to a stop as the android announced, "Okay Zhenzhu, we're finally here."

"Thank Tu Gong," she sighed in deep relief before enthusiastically unbuckling her seatbelt. She wasted no time in getting out of the car either, sighing in contented familiarity as her feet once more made contact with the earth. If not for the little fact that it would've seriously blown her cover (or at least freaked people out), she could've either kissed the ground or made angels in it with her bending from sheer happiness, just like when she'd been on the mountain in the Si Wong Desert.

Immediately, she slid her left foot forward and used the vibrations to paint a picture of her surroundings. There were nine other "cars" of various sizes and shapes in the exhaust-smelling "parking lot," most lower to the ground than Olivia's. About ten or eleven paces away, down a flagstone path (a form of decorating that the earthbender approved of) was a medium sized wooden building. A tall wooden fence composed of logs curved away from each side of it, obviously to keep in the hoofed animals she could feel walking and smell on the other side. Beyond them were other enclosures, made of linked wire, more wood, or just metal bars, containing more strange creatures. Among them ran gravel paths or thinner versions of the tar roads.

She heard Marco's door slam shut on the other side, then his feet on the gravel, feeling their impact as he walked around the back of the vehicle and in her direction. Then she jerked in surprise as she felt his warm fingers grasp her left wrist.

"Smart Aleck, what-"

"It's just to make it seem like I'm leading you by the hand," he explained softly. "While I know you can find your way around just fine, we've gotta hide that particular light under a bushel basket whenever possible, if you catch my drift. And the fact that it'll make people actually think of me as a nice guy doesn't hurt either," he added glibly.

She nodded in understanding, unable to keep the corners of her lips from curling upward and a thrilling shudder from sweeping through her at the idea of holding hands all day with Smart Aleck.

"Oh, you were never a nice guy Marco," Cassie teased over her shoulder as she put her textbook back into her backpack.

"True, but you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, I've found out," he remarked. "Besides, I've gotta shake my image up every once in a while, keep people on their toes," he declared as they began walking toward the pavilion type building, leading the earthbender along.

Toph decided it was strange, having her hair in a long, thick braid instead of a practical, out-of-the-way bun as they walked down the stone path. For one thing, it always felt like someone was touching her whenever she moved, caressing and scraping against her shoulders and back. Plus, she knew from experience that this style tended to get caught between your back and the chair whenever you sat down. Maybe she should have part of it chopped off later, she mused.

Olivia opened the door first, which gave a light tinkling sound as they walked inside, obviously to let whatever employee was at the counter know they were there.

Through the wood, she could just manage to distinguish the form of a man behind the long counter a pace in front of her and directly to her left, short and barrel-chested.

"Cassie!" he said in warm recognition as he noticed them, his voice booming and deep. "Nice to see you back here!"

"Thanks Mr. Oppel," she amiably responded. "How's Sonya's eye been? Sonya is one of the alligators here," she explained to Toph. "She got a puncture wound in her left eye and a bloody nose a few weeks ago while fighting with another female named Alison, and they rushed her to the zoo so my mom could perform surgery on her."

"Ah," she grunted in understanding, although she had no idea what an alligator really even was.

"Surgery on a gator," Marco commented wryly. "I'd love to see that."

"It's healing well," Doug replied thoughtfully. "Might not ever be quite as good as the other one again, but I think it'll be fine. Gators are pretty tough, after all. And who are your friends here?" he asked, turning his attention to them.

Taking her cue, Toph raised her right hand and smiled as she told him, "I'm Zhenzhu. Nice to meet you Mr. Oppel."

"And I'm her foster mother, Olivia," the Chee behind her said.

"I'm the one and only Marco," Smart Aleck finished.

"Well, it's nice to have you here."

Suddenly, Doug paused, and even though she lacked sight, the earthbender could feel his eyes curiously scrutinizing her face. "That's odd," he commented to himself.

"What's odd?" Marco asked, trying to play dumb, deflect Doug's attention.

"Well, your friend looks Chinese, yet she has green eyes," he replied in bafflement as Toph fought the urge to fidget.

"One of her ancestors on her mother's side came from northwest India, where some of the tribal peoples have green eyes," Olivia smoothly "explained." "That's probably where she gets them from."

"Yeah," Doug said. His tone was both thoughtful and doubtful. "Or it's a mutation, like with white raccoons, black squirrels, things like that."

"Anyway," Cassie said a bit hurriedly, "Zhenzhu just recently came here from China, and I thought it would be great fun for her to spend time with the animals. You still do the Wolf and Cougar Encounter, right?"

"Sure do. And I'm guessing that's something you're _really_ looking forward to, aren't you Zhenzhu?" he addressed the bender.

"Can't wait," she grinned as she gave him a thumbs-up with her free hand.

"Well, you're going to have a lot of fun, believe me."

Turning to the disguised Chee then, he slid some sort of thin board forward, topped by a metal clip as he told her, "Sign here please. Used to be I could just let people walk in before," he groused, "but now I have to have everyone sign a waiver and go through all sorts of other bureaucratic garbage first before they step in the pen."

"What's a waiver?" Toph asked in confusion.

"It's a legal document," Yzark explained. "In this case, it states that if any of the animals we're going to interact with-and they are big predators, keep in mind-harm you, Mr. Oppel is not to blame."

"Gotchya."

The Chee paid for all four of them with some kind of paper money, and then after calling for Whitney, one of his employees, to take over at the "cash register," Doug led them out into the park proper.

"First," he informed them, "we're going to visit our wolf pack. Then once we've spent some time with them, I'm going to bring out one of our cougars for you guys to pet."

"Cool," Smart Aleck replied.

As Doug opened the door and Marco guided her through, Toph felt the sun's rays beat down on her skin once more and smelt dust. At least a dozen deer and goats (_not gecko-goats, just goats_) trotted up to their group in eager anticipation, hoping to be fed.

"Sorry, but I've got nothing," Toph replied as she held out her hands, lightly stroking and petting the animals as she walked among them, feeling oddly guilty.

They soon drifted away to join other groups of deer and goats which were having more success getting food from the bags held by energetic, delighted kids and their parents.

While she didn't truly need to have Smart Aleck holding her hand, and they both knew it, it was all part of the ruse she was now a part of. And it just felt natural, right, as the extended contact made both their hearts beat faster.

As they walked through the sanctuary, Toph couldn't help but regard everything with amazement and confusion. The animals. The people watching them, mostly families. The way they were dressed. A fake, unnatural type of manmade stone. The mechanical cart that passed them with a "whhiiirrrr," with a load of fresh straw and a shovel in its boxy "trailer." It was intriguing and bewildering all at once.

They came up to a big enclosure a few minutes later, about six acres in total area. It was surrounded by a tall fence made of the same linked metal diamonds as many of the other fences were, and contained trees, three manmade "caves" of some unnatural type of rock, and a stream which ran, chuckling, into a modest pond.

And of course, there were the wolves. Six of them in all, either lying in the grass or just walking around.

The prospect of going in with them excited the earthbender. For one thing, it would simply be a wonderful experience, getting to pet and spend time up close with these magnificent, fierce, intelligent, independent creatures which seemed to be the very embodiment of wildness and had great cultural significance for Sokka and Katara's people, like the badgermoles for her own.

Then too, although it was a cougar she'd really come for, the idea of acquiring a member of the pack, of being able to become one of these swift, determined, agile endurance hunters whenever she wished, with sharp teeth, sharp eyesight, and a sense of smell that Hawk Boy said was like nothing she could imagine, was much too appealing to pass up.

There was a rope barrier placed a little more than a pace's distance in front of the pack's enclosure, and all five of them climbed over it, with Toph making sure to keep playing the role of ordinary blind girl as she kept her hand in contact with Marco's shoulder.

Through the soles of her moccasins, she felt Doug walk up to the first of two doors that formed the entrance to the wolf pen, this one at the front of a sort of hallway of fencing, two and a half paces long by one and a half wide with another door at the end.

As he took his keys out from his pocket and began to work the lock, all six wolves became alert and stood up, curiously drifting over in his direction.

"We have six wolves in this enclosure," Doug informed them as he unlocked the door. "The alpha male of this pack, Casper, and his sister, Glacier, are both Arctic wolves, while Holly, the alpha female and the other three are timber wolves."

As they all filed into the chain-link corridor, Doug shutting the first door and locking it behind them, Olivia asked, "Is there anything we should know about how to behave around the wolves?"

"Not really," he replied as he walked to the second door and opened the horseshoe latch. "Just be calm and let them come to you," he said as he opened the door and they entered the main pen.

The bender walked into the pen for about 15 paces, the fingers of her right hand touching Marco's back in pretend guidance. Then, moving a few steps away from him, she sat down, folding her legs in front of her.

Through the palms of her hands, she felt one of the wolves casually come walking in her direction.

"That's one of the two Arctic wolves," Marco told Toph as the wolf approached the blind girl, smelling quite similar to a dog as it sniffed her moccasins, finding out more about her.

Unsure of what to expect, she held her breath as the wolf stepped closer-and licked her cheek!

She laughed in delight, reaching out and scratching the wolf's shoulders with both hands as it pulled back and stood there, panting and twitching with happiness at the feeling of her fingers running through its coat.

As Toph raised herself into a kneeling position, the wolf lightly leaning against her as she stroked its thick, soft, layered coat, it occurred to her that this was as good a moment as any to acquire the animal.

Slipping her fingers into the wolf's underfur, she made contact with its skin and focused on the creature's proud, untamed nature. The wolf's breathing slowed, its heartbeat, and it became still.

Once the deed was complete, the wolf snapped alert, then backed a few steps away from the blind earthbender, puzzled and uncertain. She realized it was smart enough to understand that she'd just done something weird to it, although it had no idea exactly what.

But then the wolf dismissed it and began to lick her face again.

Another wolf paced up behind her while she was thus distracted, and flung one of its forelegs over her bare left shoulder, causing Toph to leap to her feet with a yelp of surprise. "What the-"

Doug laughed. "Aw, that's just Taz tapping you on the shoulder," he assured her. "He's one of our timber wolves, and he _loves_ hugs and handshakes!"

"Handshakes, huh?" Toph echoed thoughtfully as she thought of Jake's strange greeting.

Taz sat down in front of her, eagerly pawing the air with his right foreleg.

"All right, I get it," she laughed as she reached out and clasped the timber wolf's huge paw in her hand, the pads warm and dry and rough against her skin as she shook it. Aware that she was literally grasping an opportunity to acquire another, different type of wolf, she decided to focus her mind on Taz as well.

They spent about an hour with the wolves, walking around, scratching them behind the ears, ruffling their fur, getting their faces licked, being sniffed at or even playfully jumped on, giving Taz and the others hugs. It was very cool indeed.

Toph couldn't help but notice that the wolves seemed especially interested in-and affectionate towards-Olivia/Yzark, sitting or even curling up next to her for long periods, or acting very playful towards the robot. She figured they could see through her weird disguise somehow, and that her natural, canine form apparently appealed to them on some level.

And when Doug told them it was time to head on out, the whole pack followed her right up to the second chain-link door, tails wagging and leaping about with excitement, eager for one last caress from the android.

"They sure seem to like you," Doug commented in amusement as he shut the door on them and latched it.

"Well, I've just always had a way with animals," Yzark replied smoothly.

As he locked the first door and rejoined them, Doug said, "The pens where we keep our cougars aren't far from here. When we get there, I'm going to bring out one of the females, Mocha, on a leash for you to pet and play with. After that, I'm going to bring out one of our bobcats, Zeke."

When they got there after a couple more minutes of walking, Doug unlocked the door to another pen, this one an empty, large, open circle about fifteen paces in diameter.

It shared a fence with a rectangular, two-acre pen-a pen in which two cougars sleekly, gracefully walked about.

"You guys stay here while I get Mocha," he told them after shutting the door, and walking up to the entrance of the main cougar enclosure.

The earthbender was all expectation as she felt Doug unlock the second door, grab a chain hanging next to it, then step inside with the two big cats, which affectionately paced up to him and shoved their heads against his legs, leaning heavily against them as he walked a few paces out into their enclosure, laughing and patting their backs.

She was quite impressed at the extraordinary bond he clearly had with these powerful predators.

"Hey Mocha, hey Apache," he greeted them warmly, as he bent over and slipped the chain around Mocha's sleek neck, securing it with a click.

Grasping the other end of the chain, he told the cat, "Time to go meet some new friends Mocha," as he opened the door again and led the feline toward Toph and her companions, the impact of her paws subtle and confident against the dirt.

The earthbender stepped forward first, and as the cougar sauntered up to her, rubbing her elegant head against Toph's legs, placed her hand just behind Mocha's shoulders.

* * *

The claws of the grizzly bear made a clanging _strum, strum_, as he ran them over the bars of his pen.

The sound and vibrations got Toph's attention, and she stopped as their group made its way back to the visitor center.

"What's he making that sound for?" she asked in perplexity.

"That's Samson, our male grizzly's, way of asking for someone to toss a little food down the snack chute for him," Doug replied from over his shoulder. "His sister, Leah, sometimes does it too, but not often. We call it 'playing the guitar,'" he said in slight amusement.

Grizzly bears. That captured her interest. After all, Rachel had a grizzly bear morph, and from what Tobias and Ax had told her, used it to devastating effect in battle.

"Can we go in with them too?" the earthbender asked hopefully, thinking of Bosco's placid, clownish nature. "Or at least pet them?"

"Um, excuse me?" Marco said incredulously, coming to a halt.

"That's probably not a good idea Zhenzhu," Cassie said dryly.

"Sorry, but no," Doug solemnly refused. "They don't mind if I, Sophie, and other members of our family come in with them, but it's too dangerous to allow other people that they don't know in their enclosure, or even just to pet them through the fence. They probably wouldn't hurt you, but it's still not a risk I'm willing to take."

"Yeah, one swat from a grizzly has a tendency to send your head flying like a soccer ball," Marco stated.

_Whatever that is_, she thought.

"Point taken," she said in mock understanding.

After spending some time petting and playing with Mocha, Doug had brought her back to her enclosure and then briefly left before returning with a leashed Zeke, who the earthbender had also acquired and played with.

They'd then moved on to the sanctuary's alligator pond, home to eight of the huge reptiles. There, one of the employees, a guy named Ramon, had brought out a young gator named Rex for them to pet-muzzled of course.

At about the length of her forearm and hand, Toph had understandably decided Rex was rather diminutive for a battle morph, and contented herself with simply feeling his cool, ridged, scaly back and legs.

Nor had it exactly been a good situation for acquiring one of the adult gators. Doug had led them out onto a sort of elevated dock above the gator pond, where Ramon stuck pieces of raw chicken on a bamboo pole for them to hold over the water, enticing the huge reptiles to leap for it.

The harsh _clomp _of their broad jaws smashing shut on the offerings, and the force she felt transmitted through the bamboo, had certainly made quite an impression on the earthbender. Still, it had been a pretty awesome thing to do.

Now that he'd shown them a good time, Doug parted ways with them at the visitor center, leaving them to their own devices.

Olivia bought her a bag of treats for the animals, containing sliced apples, coarse, rectangular "rye crackers," pieces of some root vegetable called "carrots," some sort of little, brittle disc shaped things that the bears and "raccoons," really liked and were called "Vanilla wafers," and a sort of small, tough, bone-shaped biscuit that Olivia said were treats for dogs, but other animals liked too. As for Cassie, she paid for her own, while Marco politely declined the Chee's offer.

Before going out into the park a second time though, all three Animorphs decided to take the edge off their own hunger first at the little enclosed food court that linked to the main visitor center.

That was somewhat confusing for the earthbender.

When they came to the counter to order food, Sunshine told her, "Okay Zhenzhu, none of the foods they have here are ones you'd be familiar with, so I'll tell you what they are, and you pick the one that sounds best to you."

"Do they have chicken nuggets here?" Toph asked as she angled her head in Cassie's direction, on her right. "Nuhg-ettsss. Rachel brought me some yesterday for lunch, and those were actually pretty good."

"They don't have those here, but they do have chicken strips," Sunshine replied. "They also have burgers, which are patties of ground beef between two buns, cheeseburgers, which are the same except they also have a slice of cheese, and hot dogs, which is a mixture of beef and pork in a casing and served in a long bun."

"Like a sausage. Sauce-edge."

"Yeah, but just not as thick or spicy. And all the orders here come with French fries and a pickle spear."

"Why would someone make a spear for pickles? It's not like they're going to jump away or something."

Cassie giggled slightly before explaining, "A pickle spear is our term for a quarter of a pickled cucumber, cut lengthwise."

"Got ya. But what are these 'French fries' that come with the meal?"

"They're these sort of rods cut from a kind of tuber called a potato that have been fried in oil and sprinkled with salt," Cassie told her.

"Now _that_ sounds delicious Sunshine," Toph grinned.

"They sure are. They have a rather greasy, starchy taste to them that you'd probably enjoy, and they're even better with a sort of tangy sauce called ketchup. They'll make you fat if you don't go easy on them though!"

"Ketchup," she echoed thoughtfully. "Like catch up!" she laughed.

"Philipp certainly enjoys his French fries," Smart Aleck commented behind them, using Antelope Boy's own false name. "He says they're one of the greatest accomplishments of human civilization, and would eat them all day if you let him."

"Got that right dude! Fries are awesome," some random young woman laughed as she passed by them.

"Do they serve drinks here?"

"Yes. There's water, orange juice, soft drinks like Coca-Cola, Pepsi-"

"Hold on," she interrupted. "Soft drinks? How can a drink be soft?"

Marco laughed as Olivia stepped in, telling her, "Soft drinks are a term for sweetened beverages which contain little bubbles of gas. They're also called pop or soda."

"And they make you burp like anything," Cassie wryly.

Toph lightly laughed. "Gotta say, I like the idea of anything that'll make me burp."

"Burping's cool," Marco agreed.

She liked this guy. "Any of these uh, 'soft drinks' you'd recommend, Smart Aleck?" she inquired as she turned toward him.

"Pepsi's pretty good," he shrugged. "Nice and sweet. Mountain Dew's good too, with more of a citrus taste to it-and oh man, does it ever kick you into a higher gear!"

That made up her mind, and turning to the teenage boy standing behind the counter (who had been patiently and understandingly waiting for her to process and figure things out during this time), she told him in her accented voice, "I'd like a hot dog please, and a Pepsi for my drink."

"Would you like ketchup on your hot dog?"

"I sure would."

"And would you like your Pepsi in a small, medium, or large size?"

"Medium," she replied after a moment's consideration.

Smart Aleck and Sunshine ordered their own lunches then after she'd pulled back from the counter. Strangely, Olivia/Yzark did too, even though she was a living machine that didn't need food for energy. Toph figured it was part of keeping up the façade.

They went out into a little courtyard, separated from the deer by another wooden fence, and Cassie "led" her to a wrought iron table, which they all sat around, Toph moving her lengthy braid out of the way as she seated herself.

Once their lunches were ready, both Cassie and Olivia brought them to the table on a pair of rectangular plastic trays.

"Here you go Zhenzhu," the android told Earth's only bender as she set the tray down in front of her.

Thoughtfully, Toph sniffed the odors coming from the large container of stiff, waxed paper that held the "hot dog" and "French fries." They were attractive, promising ones, smelling of yeast and warm starch and grease and vinegar among other things, causing her to automatically salivate.

She picked up the hot dog-_what a weird name for a sausage-_and bit into it, contemplatively chewing.

"Wow!" she said as her eyes lit up. "This is excellent!"

And it was!

The bun was moist and airy, with a nice yeasty taste. The hot dog itself was warm, with a meaty, somewhat mild pickled taste to it, juicy and salty. And the "ketchup" sauce! Sweet and tangy with vinegar, it was like nothing she'd never tasted. It was sharp and flavorful and sent a wave of pleasure through her body.

The fries were delicious enough on their own, warm rods of starch that tasted of salt and cooking oil. But when you applied ketchup-wow, now that was simply divine as far as she was concerned.

Later, Toph would come to find out that a meal of a hot dog and fries was considered rather common, coarse fare in this society. But to her it was a thing of luxury, a superb exotic dish that drove everything else from her mind.

"Umm, this ketchup stuff is like the best sauce ever guys!" she declared approvingly.

"Looks like we have another taste addict in our gang now," Marco muttered. "Lord help us."

And then there was the Pepsi, in its waxed paper cup.

Unfortunately, it also had this lid on it, preventing her from drinking.

"What stupid idiot decided to put a lid on a drink cup without any holes?" she growled in frustration as she tried sucking at random places on the "plastic" lid's edge.

"There's one in the center, but you gotta use this little tube called a straw to drink through it," Smart Aleck said. "Here, let me help you out."

He came around the table to her, unwrapped something, and Toph heard a sharp punching sound as he drove the straw through a gap in the lid's center. "There you go."

Searching with her sensitive lips, Toph found the top of the straw, also made of the weird plastic material, and began to nurse at it.

Her first swig made her jerk back in pleasurable surprise.

This "Pepsi" beverage was not only amazingly, syrupy sweet, it also somehow had lots of little bubbles in it, which hissed and tickled her mouth and throat. It was a weird, yet interesting feeling.

She took another long sip, and held it there, getting accustomed to the taste and sensation.

She decided she liked it, or at least the high sugar content, and alternated pulls at the straw with bites of ketchup-daubed fries.

After they'd all finished lunch and thrown their trash away in some strange plastic barrels-she was amazed at how prevalent this unnatural, tough, yet flexible and compressible, always versatile material seemed to be in the lives of these Earth humans-appropriately known as trash cans and returned their trays, they'd gone back out into the greater portion of the park just to simply enjoy the animals.

Some, like the deer, goats, and donkeys, were free-roaming, surrounding Toph in a scrum as soon as they noticed her take a treat out of the bag and lightly nibbling at her braid or clothes.

Others, like elk, were kept in sturdy wooden paddocks, and you had to stick your hand through the fence to feed them the treats. Another of these same corrals was home to four female bison.

As with the badger in Cassie's barn, Toph found it rather disappointing how the shaggy beasts were considerably less impressive in size than Appa, standing on four much thinner legs ending in cloven hooves instead of the sky bison's sturdy six limbs, each ending in a more handlike set of hooves.

Nor were their tails much to talk about either, being thin, short and ropy, a far cry from Appa's huge, drooping, paddle-shaped one, which served so effectively as both a ramp for getting on, and an entertaining slide for getting back to stable, solid ground or just playing.

But most pitifully of all, they couldn't airbend! They weren't even so much as able to produce a light breeze, much less fly.

When she'd expressed her sentiments to Sunshine however, the other girl had told her that these Earth bison they were feeding were still nothing to scorn, that they could jump over a 6-foot high fence (or in Toph's units of measurement, a pace high one), smash down or smash through nearly any fence or barrier that they couldn't, run up to 40 miles an hour, and were deceptively agile, not to mention headstrong and fairly smart. They could hold off even a big pack of wolves for half a day-or even longer-before they were finally taken down. And they fatally gored people on a regular basis.

That information made the earthbender view them in a somewhat more favorable light. Favorable enough that she'd decided to acquire one of the bison, pressing her hand against its huge, shaggy forehead. Marco and Cassie had decided to do the same, with Marco simply saying "This sounds like a great morph for smashing things."

Yet other animals, like the raccoons, possums, porcupines, that had a marked tendency to scratch or bite, could only be fed through a square chute, composed of a sheet of metal, that ran from the safety fence down into their cage.

And one of these chutes shuttled snacks to two of America's most formidable carnivores of all, either one of which Toph Beifong _deeply_ wanted to acquire before leaving.

Samson and Leah.

The grizzly twins.

* * *

**Every time I read book #7 in the series, it astounds me that Rachel was able to go right into the grizzly exhibit and acquire one, without any backup, and the bears didn't so much as threaten her. Even though she'll only need to touch one of them through the bars, will Toph be so fortunate? **

**Or will she end up like the woman in the Binky the polar bear footage? To quote Marco in book #4, "It would be funny if wasn't some alien that ended up getting us, but some normal Earth creature." Yeah, especially while trying to acquire it.**

**Personally, if I had the ability to morph and was in the Animorph's shoes, I'd be running around acquiring a whole bunch of random animals to morph, both out of sheer curiosity to try them out, and because hopefully that way I'd have a good morph for ANY situation. Gulls, flies, pigeons, every dog breed I could think of, cats, fish, deer, crickets, and so on. In this fic, having learned a thing or two about the advantages of flexibility while with the Gaang, Toph feels the same way.**

**And thus, so far we have: big brown bat, red-tailed hawk, horse, common housefly, northern bluebottle fly, northern goshawk, common raven, red fox, western gull, striped skunk, western diamondback rattlesnake, Northern Pacific rattlesnake, mink, American badger, long-tailed weasel, horned owl, feral pig, snow goose, red-sided garter snake, gray squirrel, Arctic wolf, timber wolf, cougar (just what she wanted!), bobcat, and American bison.**

**Finally, yes, we have a Marco/Toph romance brewing here!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Here I am again at last everyone! Sorry to keep you waiting so long.**

**In one part of this chapter, italics will be used to indicate a conversation in Chinese. There will also be a conversation which will include very mild adult aspects.**

* * *

"For the record, may I just state what an _insanely_ dangerous idea this is?" Marco commented. "Okay, there are quite a few things that could rate higher on that list, but still, you're seriously going to get within touching distance of a grizzly?"

"I'm just going to touch one of their paws when they put it through the bars Smart Aleck," Toph confidently assured him as she began to focus her chi through her feet. "Then I'll jump back while it's still in a trance and tunnel back here. Besides, I have Olivia for backup if something goes wrong-You will back me up, right?"

"As I said, yes," the android reassured her. "While we Chee lack the ability or desire to harm another living being, we can still restrain them to prevent them from harming us or others."

"And you're sure no one will be able to see me through this weird holo-whatever?"

"It'll seem like you're standing right by my side the whole time."

Toph nodded. "Here we go then."

"Be careful," Cassie said.

As she _pushed _downward through her feet and hands, her arms tucked tightly against her body, Toph felt herself sink into the ground, shifting her body slightly once her legs were in so as to go in the dirt at a steep angle.

The dirt encased her, but she felt no fear as she continued tunneling to a certain point, using input from her feet and hands all the while to calculate her route. Then she stopped and _pushed_ upward at a similar angle through her hands and feet, rising up and out of the soil like a member of some undead army, bending off any remnants which stuck to her.

While Olivia's strange "hologram" powers were apparently masking her activities from other people, the bears must've been able to see or at least smell what the bender was doing, for they were already right there in front of her, pressed together and intently focused, fascinated.

Their paws were probing, questing, waving between the bars. Claws like pickaxe points played a tune on the metal rods.

All she had to do was take one big stride forward, quickly press her hand to one of their paws, and then jump back. Easy. In theory anyway.

The smaller grizzly, Leah, idly pawed the air, and Toph lunged forward, her palms making contact with the back of the bear's massive paw. The fur was woolly and coarse under her hands as she concentrated.

And as expected, the bear became placid and calm.

It completely amazed the earthbender that this massive, hulking predator, at least four times her weight, could be rendered so feeble and impotent, simply by the touch of her fingers.

But her brother was still very much alert and active. Too active.

It all happened very fast.

Suddenly, Toph felt Samson's paw flick out from between the bars and wrap around her left leg in a brutal, crushing strike, his claws raking her flesh as he yanked her leg through the bars and she cried out in pain and shock.

"Aaahhhh!"

"Zhenzhu!" Olivia cried out as she began to spring forward, and both Sunshine and Smart Aleck tensed.

"Huh? What?" a woman cried nearby.

But even as Samson began to bite down into her leg, the blind girl had the presence of mind to let herself fall back and kick with her free right one, _pushing _up and out as she did so.

A sixty pound chunk of the strange, unnatural kind of stone that formed the interior edging in the bear's enclosure flew up into the air, striking Sampson squarely in the groin.

He gave a short, sharp "Wwooofff!" of surprise and pain as he let go and backed away, letting her drop to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Olivia was right there, grabbing Toph in her metal arms and springing over the safety fence like a deer, stopping before gently laying her on the grass.

"Uuhhhh!" the bender moaned as the pain hit, smelling and feeling her own blood dripping over her skin, onto the grass. "That's a serious ouchie folks. Oh Shu, that hurts!"

"And that's pretty much what I expected might happen," Marco knowingly yet forlornly commented.

She felt Cassie hold her left hand as she asked, "Is your leg broken Toph?"

"I don't think so. I can still move it-ow!-just fine," she replied as she tested the limb and sat up to put a bit of weight on it, wincing as she did so. "But it still hurts like anything, and I'm definitely bleeding. Uhhh..."

"Yeah, those claws tore your skin," the other girl confirmed. "Other than that, it looks like your calf muscle got crushed and a major bruise is forming."

"I don't suppose any of you know how to heal with waterbending, huh?" she asked wryly.

"Sorry, but we never learned that in health class," Marco quipped. "You should try a partial morph to heal it though," he suggested.

That was a good idea.

"Then since you're about my size and you're already holding my hand, is it okay if I acquire and morph a little ways into you Sunshine to heal myself? It'll be just this once," she added.

"Okay," Cassie replied.

Once Toph had acquired the other girl, with Olivia keeping them screened by a hologram, the bender began to morph her, focusing on the legs and feet as she did so.

Unlike with the bat, there was very little change to her body this time.

She simply bent her tissues just enough so that she was still mostly Toph, but with Sunshine's legs, feet, and lower thighs.

"Wow," Smart Aleck commented, impressed. "Looks like you're not the only one who can pull this sort of trick off anymore Cassie," he said.

Toph ignored him. Right now she was just relieved that her injuries, even if mild, had now vanished, and stayed that way when she returned back to her whole form.

"Well, that was sure rather exciting," she dryly commented as she got to her feet and raised her arms in a stretch. "Still, I don't think I'll ever be doing that again."

"Hey, that's my line!" Marco whined. Becoming more serious, he added, "And I second that opinion."

"Got myself a grizzly morph though!"

"I wonder what Rachel's going to think of this development?" Cassie mused to Marco.

"You're her best friend Cassie. You tell me."

After using her bending to smooth out the soil and concrete, Toph and the others fed a few treats to the bears, and then moved on.

Having felt she'd acquired enough animals for the day, she spent the next two hours simply enjoying the company of her three new friends as they emptied out both treat bags and petted deer and goats and rabbits.

Cassie talked her into going on a camel ride, and with assistance from Carmen, its handler, Toph planted herself in the leather saddle just behind the long-legged beast's massive hump. Despite her initial skepticism, it turned out to actually be pretty fun as Carmen led the camel around by the halter for five minutes.

And it was nice of her new friends to want her to have fun experiences, to make memories.

They stopped at a large pond about three paces in diameter, which contained many fish called "trout." Not bass-trout, or pike-trout, just trout. Both Marco and Sunshine, who both ironically had this fish as a morph, claimed they were excellent eating.

Here though, the trout were the ones who got to do that.

There were two machines nearby, square boxes with a horizontal metal slot that you had to put a large coin called a "quarter" into. They intrigued her. Proper metal coins had nice square holes in the center, with four characters on the front, and were made of copper alloy, silver, or gold.

But these odd "quarters," named because four of them made the basic unit of money, a "dollar," were solid, slippery discs, made of three-fourths copper and one quarter nickel, emblazoned with the figure of a perched eagle with partly spread wings on the back (which she had to admit was pretty cool), and the profile of a man on the front whom Smart Aleck said was named "George Washington," the father of their country.

According to both him and Sunshine-and they swore on their lives it was true-they'd actually _**met**_ him, been in his presence as this General Washington had led his troops across a bitterly cold "Delaware River" to engage the "British" military forces-an event that had happened 224 years ago! Apparently, it had all been part of an attempt to stop a rogue Controller from _seriously_ messing up history.

Oh, and during that little freezing cold boat ride, Boss Boy had taken a "bullet" through the head, killing him, but had then been restored to life when it was all over. Yeah, it was all pretty complicated. And it didn't seem like they were lying-among other things, their voices were earnest enough.

Still, she couldn't help but wonder if this was all part of an elaborate attempt to make her brain explode. If so, they were well on their way.

_Geez, and here I thought Sugar Queen, Sokka, Twinkletoes and I experienced more than our fair share of crazy shit together,_ the earthbender thought as she massaged her temples, aching from a futile effort to comprehend the situation. _But that's obviously hardly anything compared to what these Animorph guys have been through._

Sunshine told her you then had to turn a short, rod-like crank, which caused a large handful of slightly greasy feeling, coarse textured pellets to fall into your palm. Although she could've easily used her metalbending to open the machine's hatch, Toph decided that being a thief would probably make a bad impression on her new friends, and so paid up.

When she flung the pellets into the pond, the surface erupted. The earthbender listened in excitement as the trout, creatures that belonged to a world she could never understand nor survive in, made the water boil, splashing and leaping, making wet smacking sounds as they snatched pellets from the surface.

Marco, Cassie, and even Olivia took turns tossing pellets to the trout as well while Toph idly dug in her right nostril and thoughtfully listened to the fish feed. Now that she had the ability to bend her body, there was nothing to stop her from becoming one of these fish if she wanted to, or any other creature of the water.

What would it be like, to swim under the waves, to breathe the cold, so terribly deep and _unstable_ fluid that surrounded you, provided no support, to belong to such an alien world? The prospect both excited and scared and perplexed her to the core.

As if she could read her mind, Sunshine said to her offhandedly, softly, "While you've acquired plenty of wonderful morphs today, it'd be good for you to get something that's at home in the water soon."

The earthbender gave a sigh of unhappiness, tensing and fidgeting as she shifted in place.

"Uh, Sunshine?" she said. "Sorry, but I don't _do_ water all that well, especially if it's deep."

"So you can't swim then?" Cassie asked.

"Not a stroke," Toph replied. "And I'm just not a water person to begin with."

"Hey, I can barely swim myself," Smart Aleck told her. "And I'd sooner soak up the rays on the beach instead of going into the waves. But when you morph a dolphin or a shark and start moving that tail, speeding through the water...oh man, you're not scared of drowning anymore, trust me. It _knows_ what to do."

"All _you_ have to do is be careful and make sure you have someone right by you to help whenever you change back to human. Knowing how to tread water really helps too-and that's pretty easy to learn, even for a blind person like you," he added.

"Good to know," the earthbender replied, pleased and a bit more confident. "As for morphs that are good in the water, what do you recommend Sunshine?" she inquired as she turned to Cassie.

"Well, both your snow goose and gull morphs are excellent for simply flying over water or resting and swimming on the surface, and the mink should be just fine for rivers and lakes. But like Marco said, a dolphin morph is the way to go out in the ocean. And even though none of us have ever acquired one yet, a sea lion wouldn't be a bad choice either."

Sea lion. Toph briefly frowned in puzzlement. She wondered if they were anything like the tiger seals Sokka spoke of hunting on the southern sea ice.

"Maybe we could go acquire both of them tomorrow?" she proposed.

"Sorry, but that'll have to wait," Cassie told her with a shrug. "I _**really **_have to focus on my homework tomorrow."

"Hey, I understand," the metalbender replied.

"Besides, we've got to go buy you a decent wardrobe," Olivia added. "Skirts, tank tops, shirts, dresses, shorts, and so on."

Toph silently sighed. Great. That sounded like yet _more_ horrid car trips, and then the tedium of trying and taking off item after stupid item of clothing to make sure it was comfortable and/or "looked good on her."

"Well, just don't go overboard with it."

"Heh, that sounds like something right up Xena's alley," Smart Aleck droned dryly. "And she'd make absolutely sure everything you bought was so 'cute,' and 'stylish' too."

"You know," the Chee replied thoughtfully, inspired, "that's actually a pretty good idea Marco. I'll call Naomi later and ask her permission."

"Nice going Smart Aleck," she sighed. Still, the idea of getting to know this new gang's own fierce female fighter better and sharing stories of prowess in combat was very much an enticing prospect to look forward to.

After tossing a few more handfuls of pellets to the excitable trout, it was time to go home, Toph having successfully acquired all three of North America's great predators.

As they all walked back into the parking lot, her right hand slung over Smart Aleck's shoulder, the earthbender once more felt the telltale, eerie double heartbeat.

It was from the man who'd been by the elk pen, sorting things in the back of his own vehicle, a "sports car." The other, female Controller was already in the front seat.

Naturally, being in the presence of something so vile and _wrong_ made her quail a second time, her face a mask of repulsion and dismay.

"Is it one of _them _again?" Marco muttered close to her ear.

Toph nodded. "One of the same ones as before too."

And this time she was almost eager to get back into the wretched "SUV," if only so she couldn't feel that slug's heartbeat any longer.

Once more, Toph buckled up, Olivia started up the horrid, gut-churning engine, and they left the parking lot.

Several miles away from the animal refuge, the Chee stopped in the parking lot of a "Holiday" store, telling the miserable earthbender she'd be right back in a few minutes.

Toph forcefully inhaled air until her stomach settled, then sat there for a few moments, listening to the motor idle.

"Well, this has been a pretty interesting Saturday, huh girls?" Marco asked rhetorically. "Not as exciting as whenever battles with Yeerks and morphing are involved, but still interesting all the same. Toph gets like the grand slam when it comes to acquiring all the local superpredators, got lightly mauled by a grizzly, we find out you can sense the heartbeats of Yee-"

"Thanks Smart Aleck," she blurted out suddenly.

"Uh, you're welcome and everything I guess Daredevil, but what exactly are you thanking me for?" Marco inquired, his tone rather confused.

"I think I know," Cassie slyly replied, causing Toph's cheeks to heat slightly.

"Well I don't," Marco huffed. "But then, that's the story of my life, always the last to know!" he sighed theatrically.

Bracing herself, Toph answered hesitantly, "What I mean is-thanks for coming along, Smart Aleck. You didn't need to. You didn't have to. I probably could've managed just fine with Sunshine and Olivia. But you did anyway, came to keep me company and help me out. That's really nice of you."

"Toph, _please_," he huffed dismissively. "You're making it sound like I regard you as some sort of charity case, that just because you're blind and have no knowledge of our soci-"

"Marco, just listen," Cassie gently chided. "Go on Toph."

"Anyway-what I'm saying is-uh, thanks. Thanks for being an awesome friend-and taking the time to do that for me, even though we still don't know each other all that well."

"Hey, it sure beats spending my day sweeping out the basement or playing video games for six hours straight," he wryly responded, causing the blind girl to laugh, even if she had no idea what video games were exactly. "And besides, you're pretty cool. I guess I even kind of like hanging out with you-don't you dare tell anyone what I just said Cassie," he warned, suddenly defensive.

"My lips are locked," she sweetly promised as Toph lowered her head and turned away, hoping her lengthy bangs would hide her reddening cheeks.

Olivia came back then, with a package of some type of baked good called "ginger snaps."

Sunshine opened the box, then the inner foil bag they came in (_For the love of Tu Gong, why did these Earth people have to use so much needless __**packaging**__ for their foodstuffs?_), and gave it to the blind girl, who grabbed a handful.

She decided she liked these "ginger snaps" a lot. They had a wonderfully intense molasses flavor, were loaded with sweet tasting spices, and had a crunchy, light texture.

And best of all, the ginger they contained soon alleviated her nausea, although the inevitable headache remained.

Instead of heading back the same way they'd come, Olivia first made a detour to drop Smart Aleck off at his home, located in a settlement known as "Suburbia."

When the car came to a stop, Toph heard music playing from an unidentifiable source about seven paces away from the road, coming through Marco's open window.

She blindly stared. The music wasn't like anything she'd ever heard in her life. The tune, the beat, the underlying tempo, it was all so weird and unfamiliar.

There were no cymbals, flutes, drums or horns, no pipa or other string instruments here, just a bizarre, thin, excited underlying beat.

And while it was obviously being sung by someone, the earthbender still just somehow knew it wasn't an actual, flesh-and-blood human singer producing the music right here and right now. A_ real_ person though, an older man, was singing along as he sprayed a continuous stream of water on what the earthbender presumed were flowers or bushes.

"_Ain't nothing gonna break my stride/ Nobody's gonna slow me down/Oh no, I got to keep on moving/_"

"What in Oma's name is making that music?" the baffled girl asked. "Does your family have a parrot-iguana that sings for you? It sure must be talented."

The other three broke out laughing.

"What?!" she snapped, fury surging within her. "It's not funny! You know, just because I'm ignorant doesn't mean you guys have a right to laugh at me for it!"

"_Ain't nothing gonna break my stride/ I'm running and I won't touch ground/Oh-no, I got to keep on moving/"_

"Jeez Toph, chill out," Marco replied placatingly. "We weren't laughing at you."

"It's just that we, or at least I, thought the idea of a weird-looking parrot iguana thing, which is like nothing that exists on our world, singing the song was a hilarious image, that's why," Sunshine assured her, voice still laced with amusement. "Sorry if you took it as insulting."

"That's right. We certainly weren't laughing because we thought you were dumb Toph," Olivia said, cooling the bender's ire. "We understand that there are a lot of things that you don't understand about this world and society, and that you can only fall back on your own experiences to make sense of it all. I apologize for any offense."

"_You're on a roll and now you pray it lasts/ The road behind was rocky/ But now you're feeling cocky/_"

Evidently noticing them, the man got Toph's attention as he cried, "Hey there Marco! How was your day trip?"

"Who's that?"

"That's my dad, watering the petunias and listening to his Greatest Hits of The 80's CD," Marco explained, which only left Toph further perplexed.

Turning toward the window, he shouted out, "It was great Dad! Be with you in a sec, okay?"

"Anyway, see you later Daredevil," he said fondly as he opened the door. "Hope you have a nice time with Xena at the mall tomorrow."

"Thanks Smart Aleck," she replied warmly. "Have a nice evening," she told him, even as her left fist slammed into his upper arm.

"Ow, you're so abusive!" he whined, rubbing it.

"_You look at me and you see your past/Is that the reason why you're runnin' so fast?/"_

"Yeah, see you later Don Juan," Cassie playfully teased as he got out of the car.

"Ha ha ha Cassie. You're one to talk, the way you make eyes at Jake every twenty seconds whenever you're together," he groused defensively as he shut the door.

"Touché," she acknowledged.

"So, how's it going?" she heard him greet his father as he walked up the "driveway" toward him.

"Going well," his dad replied. "Euclid tried to see if he could make me fall on my face again today, as usual."

"That's his stepmom's annoying little poodle," Cassie explained as Olivia started up the engine again.

_Not a poodle-pony or poodle-monkey_.

"Not annoying, just badly socialized," the Chee pointed out.

"Where is he anyway?" she heard Marco ask. "Lord knows he'd already be barking his lungs out if he was around."

As the car began to pull away, Toph heard Marco's dad say, "Nora took him out just now to go for a walk and to visit his girlfriend Ruby."

Even though they weren't talking about her, the earthbender's cheeks and ears felt like they'd just been injected with molten metal at the mention of the word, and she shrunk down into her seat.

Girlfriend.

Girlfriend!

_That's right! You're Marco's girlfriend, you're Marco's girlfriend,_ a little voice in her head teasingly sang.

It was a thought that capered and frolicked through a field of flowers like an excited poodle-monkey (_Hah, was that ever an irony!)_ or mountain goat-deer. And it was every bit as prissy, and annoying, and embarrassing...and...and just so _**girly**_!

_Stop that!_ she snapped in frustration.

She wasn't _anyone's_ girlfriend, least of all Smart Aleck's. She still hardly knew the guy, for Tu Gong's sake!

_You're __Marco's__ girlfriend now, _the stupid little voice insisted. _And he's your __boy__friend. Doesn't being around him, having him touch you, just drive you ccrrrraaaaazzzzzyyyy?_

_I __said__ stop that! He's __**so not**__ my boyfriend! He's just a nice, pretty cool Earth-person guy,_ her superego snarled back.

Both Olivia and Sunshine were silent, the Chee focused on driving and the girl on reading her "textbook" for school.

"Cassie?"

"Yeah Toph?"

"When Marco got out of the car at his house, you called him Don Juan. I get that it was a way to tease him, but what does that expression mean?"

She laughed lightly before saying, "Um, well, Don Juan is a slang term in our society for a guy who's a real lady's man, especially one who's Latino."

The earthbender both laughed and blushed again at the same time as she asked, "What's Latino? Tee-no."

"That's the ethnicity Marco belongs to, while I'm African-American, or just simply black if you prefer. Jake, Rachel, and Tobias in human morph are white, or Caucasian."

_Black_, Toph thought, and she remembered back to how she'd seen Cassie's face while in bat morph, how it had been "darker" than that of the others, a concept her mind still grappled with. And Rachel's face had been "lighter" in color.

But that wasn't the topic right now, she reminded herself.

_Marco's your boyfriend!_ that damned little voice sang again, making the earthbender grit her teeth in annoyance.

She decided to smash down the wall.

"Sunshine, do you think he likes me?"

"Yes, at least somewhat," she replied. "Marco has always imagined himself to be irresistible to girls," she said with understated amusement, "but from what I saw of him today, he's developed a true fondness for you. Like you said, the fact that he chose to come along and spend his Saturday with you speaks for itself-not to mention all the hand-holding and punching that I noticed," she slyly added, which made Toph shift in her seat uncomfortably. "And to be honest, it sure looks to me like you like him too."

"Oh come on!" Toph fumed as she jerked upright. "You must seriously have gravel for brains if you think I actually have a crush on Smart Aleck! Just because I've elbowed or socked him a few times doesn't mean I'm hot for him," she snapped in denial, spreading her hands apart.

But Cassie simply replied, "You sure about that?" her voice knowing and perceptive.

The bender's defensive attitude withered away, and she shrugged wearily, leaning back against the seat. "Okay, I guess I do," she admitted. "Not that it does me much good to feel that way," she added. "I mean, the Ellimist basically sent me here to either help Rachel out of a jam or die myself in the attempt. Either way, it makes getting romantically involved with a guy kinda pointless for me, you know?"

"You're probably right," Cassie agreed. "Still, sometimes you just can't ignore the impulse, no matter how hard you try."

"Heh, tell me about it Sunshine," Toph snorted in amusement as she scratched her nape.

"From what I've observed, it's certainly quite a powerful one, even in the most aloof of humans," Olivia agreed.

"Also," Toph continued on simply, "while I haven't actually fought the Yeerks yet, Tobias and Antelope Boy have told me about some of the battles you guys have fought, and how desperate some of them have been. Now, considering how awesome I am, I'm really not that worried about the Yeerks getting _me_," she grinned. "But when it comes to you guys, who can't bend any elements...what if I go to all the trouble of falling in love with Smart Aleck, sharing tender moments with him-and then one day he _doesn't_ make it out of a battle? I don't think I could stand it Cassie," she said sorrowfully.

"I think about that sometimes with Jake too," Cassie admitted softly. "And I don't have any easy answers for you. All I can suggest is that if you really want to have a relationship with Marco, than just go for it. Enjoy each other's company to the fullest whenever and however you can. And if he, well, you know, doesn't make it during a mission, try not to blame yourself for what happened. Remember the good times you had together, that he'd want you to move on and keep on kicking Yeerk butt for him-and he would, trust me. That's my advice at least," she finished thoughtfully.

"And very good advice it is too," Olivia chimed in as she made a turn.

Toph became more somber then, even edgy as she placed her hands in her lap and meshed her fingers together, telling the other girl, "What has gotten into me Sunshine? I'm usually not scared of anything. But these past few months, I've been losing control of my own body, and that really frightens me, all the new changes, feelings I'm experiencing-like being attracted to Smart Aleck."

"I understand," Cassie said sympathetically. "I've gone through the same thing recently. So has Rachel, and man, is it ever such a confusing, crazy time, having your body and mind change so drastically."

"Oh Tu Gong, yes!" Toph exclaimed. "It's totally freaking me out! I mean, having my tits growing bigger all the time, and getting all hot and pointy at the most random times-and usually when I don't want them! Then there's having the itchy _hair_ growing around my snatch, and how it becomes all hot and moist whenever I think about how a guy's body is kind of attractive or touch him by accident-ugh, it's just creepy and gross! I _**hate**_ that guys can make me feel this way now, and most of all that my body is forcing me to!" she snarled in helpless fury, throwing her hands up in the air.

"You know," she went on, "benders like me know all about being in control, understanding things! In control of our element, of our bodies, of our chi. I thought I had all that stuff figured out long ago Sunshine, and I've still definitely got no problem with the other two, but when it comes to my own body these days...I'm on pretty shaky ground here all of a sudden."

"Like I said, it's definitely an uncomfortable time," Cassie replied. "But it's both unavoidable and perfectly natural as you get older. There's nothing you can really do to resist it, so you might as well try to cope. And no matter how much your body may change, just remember that you'll always still be, well, _you_ Toph. Inside I mean."

"Well it still embarrasses me Sunshine. And I don't think I'll _ever_ manage to cope with the damn cramps," Toph spat miserably. "It feels like something's trying to gnaw its way out of you from the inside. The bleeding doesn't help matters either."

"So you've experienced your ah, cycle then?" Cassie asked discreetly.

"If you want to call it that, yeah," Toph shuddered in disgust. "My first time was five months ago. I thought I'd wet my bed somehow, something I haven't done since I was two or three, and I was pretty embarrassed. Then I smelt this coppery smell, and I realized what it actually was."

"That must've freaked you out," Cassie replied. "My mom had told me all about that particular fact of life already, and I still majorly freaked anyway."

"Did it ever! I was _terrified_ Sunshine. My mom never told me, so I seriously thought I was going to bleed to death," she shuddered, recalling the dread. "You should've heard me scream!"

"Oh, I can imagine."

"It definitely woke up Jiao-she's my cook," she explained. "Man, you should've seen how she just came _racing_ into my room, probably expecting to see her boss somehow being murdered. Anyway, while I'm shocked and flipping out, the poor woman had to explain to me that 'Guess what Toph? Yeah, this bleeding from your pussy business is totally normal! It means you're a woman now, with the ability to create life, and will happen every month for at least the next forty years of your life!' Like knowing I'll have to put up with being in pain, bleeding, having bruises on my thighs, and being as cranky as a boar-crocodile with a rotten tusk every month is oh-so-special," she snarled sarcastically.

"Yeah, we girls are just _so_ lucky," Cassie sighed in equal disdain.

Toph nodded. "All that my dad and his brothers had to do to show that they'd come of age was participate in a ritual hunt with my Grandpa, while Sokka had to maneuver a ship through dangerous currents and rocks to prove his manhood. Then it was a done deal. Lucky bastards," she growled.

Mentioning her father made her think of how as soon as he and her mom had learned that she'd shed her first monthly blood, Lao and Poppy had wasted little time in traveling to meet her in Yu Dao. When they did, like Jiao, her mother had expressed great pleasure, telling Toph that this was a wonderful, joyous thing, for it meant that now she could make life, bear a grandchild for them.

She'd reluctantly performed a dumb ritual before her parents and a local priest, one that involved leaping over a flight of three steps three different times to ensure that her cycles would only last that many days and be more "bearable" as well. The family had also eaten a ceremonial meal of red beans and sticky rice together to commemorate the occasion.

"Speaking of cooks," Olivia cut in, "we're coming up to a place called Golden Lotus Garden, which is a popular place for Chinese takeout food in town."

"Takeout? Wouldn't it make more sense just to eat it in the restaurant instead?" Toph asked, raising her left eyebrow in confusion.

"You can do that," the Chee replied, "but soon I'll have to go to the casino for my night shift as a dealer, so we have to get you back to Cassie's farm fairly quickly."

"Okay then."

When the android parked a few minutes later and Toph got out of the car, contemplating the unnatural, odd "asphalt" underneath her feet, Olivia took her hand this time, leading her across the parking lot with Cassie strolling alongside.

It was bizarre, knowing that she was holding the hand of a being made entirely of metal and tough "plastic," one which had to be extremely strong. And yet, Yzark's hand felt no different to the touch than a person's, fleshy and smooth and warm. What lofty race, what unimaginable intelligences, had created technology this advanced, that it could mimic life itself?

The air was balmy and dry in the parking lot, causing Toph to sweat a little.

But when Olivia opened the door, to her shock Toph suddenly felt cool air sweep across her bare skin, a totally unexpected change in temperature that made her eyes widen in surprise.

True, the shade from the roof would obviously make it cooler in here, but still not to this extent.

"Why is it so cold in here Olivia?" she asked in puzzlement.

"It's because this building is air conditioned to keep people comfortable during hot days. They have a big, blocky machine behind the building that cools the outside air, and then pumps it inside."

"Kind of like the Cooler in the Boiling Rock prison Zuko and Sokka told be about-it's a long story," she dismissed. "You guys have so many weird machines," she commented in resignation, lightly shaking her head.

Toph decided she found the mechanically cooled air to be both novel and irritatingly chilly against her skin. It wasn't what she was used to, went against the laws of nature.

Nor did she like the fact that the floor was carpeted, rendering her truly blind and dependent on the Chee to guide her through the restaurant's foyer.

There were other people there of course, walking around, calming their children, chewing food, talking among themselves in English.

And there was another language being spoken, one which made her give a start of wonder and joy to hear. This was the one her new friends called "Chinese," the one that so inexplicably mirrored her true tongue. She could smell fried foods, chow mein, steamed vegetables, hot noodles and fresh rice, all mingling together in the air.

It almost made her dizzy with gladness, as if a small patch of the Earth Kingdom had suddenly appeared on this alien "planet," with Jiao there to welcome her.

As she picked her way across the carpet, still clutching Yzark's hand/paw, Toph carefully felt around in front of her with her free right hand.

After about one and a half careful paces past the doors, she felt her fingertips brush against a vertical surface of varnished wood as a male voice said in accented, choppy English-just like hers!-"Hello there. What would you three like to order today?"

"Ni hao," Toph replied to him.

"_Nice to have a customer who can speak Mandarin,_" the waiter said approvingly, making Toph smile in delight. "_Any idea what you'd like to order?_"

"_Not yet,_" she replied in confusion.

"_As you can see,_" Olivia cut in politely, "_my foster daughter here, Zhenzhu, is blind, so we'll need to sit down for a bit to go over the menu and discuss what she'd like to eat._"

"_Just ask me to place your order when you're ready then,_" he told the Chee. She felt his attention focus on her more sharply as he commented, "_Why, Zhenzhu here has such beautiful eyes! They are the color of jade! How lucky and pure! Is she of mixed blood?_"

"_As far as I know yes, from what the staff at the orphanage told me about her,_" the android shrugged.

"_Well, it can't be a large amount of foreign blood,_" the waiter commented, "_since except for the green eyes, she looks quite similar to my own daughter. That is also a lovely braid you have Zhenzhu,"_ he complimented her. "_Nice and long._"

"Xie xie," she replied with a small smile.

"Bu keqi," he dismissed. "Anyway, will that be here or to go?"

"To go," the Chee replied.

"Then just let me or one of the other waiters know when you've made your choice."

The thrill of having been able to speak in her true language stayed with Toph as she let Olivia lead her to a wooden bench, where they all sat down to discuss the entrees available.

Between Cassie providing input on what sort of dishes she lived best, Toph telling them about some of her favorite foods and flavors, and Olivia reading the headings for each section on the menu, they got their order figured out in about ten minutes.

After placing it, it took about twenty minutes for their food to be ready. During that time, it seemed like every waiter and waitress in the place stopped by to see, admire, and compliment the bender on her remarkable green eyes. It was flattering, she had to admit. She just hoped it wasn't arousing the suspicion of any Controllers.

When they cordially asked her, "Ni shi zhongguo nali de?" she smoothly replied, "Nanjing, Jiangsu."

Midway through waiting, she felt the urge to pee, asking Olivia, "Cesuo zai nali?"

"I'll bring you there," Yzark replied as they stood up.

For a girl who was used to using either latrines or earthenware pots to relieve herself, the concept of a flush toilet was an extraordinary one. All you had to was pull a metal lever, and the waste was washed away in a great WHOOSSSHHH! She could've "flushed" it several times, just to hear the exciting, wonderfully exotic sound which made her laugh.

But after the third time, her android "mom" had gently but firmly told her to desist, and she'd obeyed.

At last, a waitress had come with their food in a box made of a coarse, thick, fibrous type of paper Sunshine told her was called "cardboard." She'd ordered sweet and sour chicken, and pork chow mein to share with her parents when she got back home.

Toph had gotten herself three different dishes, each one inside a hinged box made of an airy, spongy material called "Styrofoam."

A bird's nest tray for an appetizer, three sweet and sour pork chunks with three cheese puffs in a shell of fried dough. Beef chow fun with rice. A double order of bananas in cinnamon coconut sauce, half to be eaten for dessert tonight, while the rest would make a great breakfast tomorrow morning before Tough Girl arrived.

It'd been a long, exciting, tiring day, and the blind girl was eager to get back in the car and head home.

After bidding their waiter "Zaijian," she went back out into the more customary, expected warmth of the outdoors. There she slipped inside the damn metal box on wheels, buckled her seatbelt, and got ready to endure her last ride for the day.

* * *

Raising the chopsticks to her mouth, Toph inserted one last piece of banana and chewed in pleasure, eyes closed as she savored the sweetness.

"You really seem to enjoy your bananas," Tobias observed as she placed the chopsticks back in the "Styrofoam" box and shut it, currently sitting beside her in his human form.

"Yeah, xiangjiao are pretty darn tasty," she said fondly. "Nice and sweet, especially when they're cooked."

"Heh, that's for sure," Hawk Boy agreed. "You should try banana cream pie or banana bread sometime," he suggested. "That stuff is outstanding!"

"That does sound good."

(Ah yes, banana bread,) Ax remarked appreciatively as he scratched his right side against a boulder three paces to her left to alleviate an itch. (When it comes to the multitude of human baked goods available on this planet, I find the taste of it nearly as delicious as that of chocolate chip cookies, frosted doughnuts, and cinnamon buns when I am in human morph.)

"You know," Tobias reminisced, "cold as she was towards me, one of the few good things I can say about my Aunt Tammy was that she did make pretty decent banana bread, pumpkin pie, and other desserts-when she bothered to take the time. Thanks for letting me have four of your banana chunks by the way," he added gratefully. "Been a long time since I've tasted anything sweet."

"Hey, my pleasure Hawk Boy," Toph replied as she picked up the weird box and stood erect, walking the half dozen paces or so back to her cave, her home away from home.

As a hawk, Tobias' tongue could only register a few primal tastes: the salty taste of blood, the ability to taste whether meat on a carcass was either fresh or too rotten to eat, and the difference between organs and red meat. The taste of sugars was now as alien to him as sight was to her, and he'd jumped on the chance to experience it again, savoring them even more than she had as he'd chewed with human teeth. It warmed her to have done him such a kindness.

Inside the cave, she placed the box on the floor before facing the left wall at a spot close to where she slept. Then she extended both arms and lightly _pushed_ at the stone, rotating her wrists so that her palms were on the outsides and spreading them several inches apart as she did so.

With a cracking of stone, a small cavity, about the size of a small dresser drawer, was formed as Tobias watched in awe behind her.

"In-freaking-credible," he said simply as Toph then picked up the remains of her dessert and placed them in the hole before stepping back and sealing it with a partial, slow-motion clap of her hands.

"Really something, aren't I?" she grinned over her shoulder at him.

"Oh, like nothing this world has ever seen. Literally."

The earthbender walked back out into the ravine and crumpled both of the empty hinged boxes, the ones which had held her appetizer and main course, lengthwise before bringing them into the cave and shoving them into the shaft at the very back, tamping them down with a bent stone plug. Not only was this method of trash disposal a civilized gesture, but also a brilliant way to cover her tracks.

Hawk Boy meanwhile, graciously put more wood on the fire with his human hands, just like he'd been doing every few hours while she'd been out with Cassie and Marco. It was very considerate of him to take the time to tend to her only source of warmth out here like that, and she'd told him as much.

Then, feeling stuffed and drowsy from her dinner, Toph bent a small pillar of stone from the floor with a stamp of her right foot and after moving her braid aside, sat down to lean back against it, resting and digesting as she soaked up the warmth of the flames.

When Olivia had brought her back to Cassie's farm, Walter had been performing surgery on a fox, and hadn't been able to come out of the barn. That'd been all to their advantage.

Still, from what Toph had figured out, the Chee had performed a crazy sort of bait-and-switch maneuver with her holographic disguising technology.

As they'd rattled down the gravel road (ten times worse than asphalt, in her opinion), they'd formed a plan. When Olivia pulled into Cassie's driveway, she'd open her passenger side door and get out first.

If her father came out to greet them, she'd present him with their own two boxes of Chinese food and ask him to bring them inside.

When he did, or if he was unable to come out into the yard to begin with, Cassie would open Toph's door. It would then _seem_ to anyone watching (Michelle wasn't due to return for about another hour) like the other girl was moving from the back seat to the front one in preparation for the ride home as Cassie made a show of considerately helping her out.

In actual fact though, Toph would then be loping away across the yard and into the fields, headed back to the cave with the cardboard shipping box held in her arms. An extraordinary visual illusion run by the android would mask her presence, while making it seem to Walter like she was still seated in the "car" and waving goodbye as Yzark headed home to get dressed and then leave for her shift manning the tables at Golden Bear Casino.

Even for a Chee, it was a difficult thing to keep up a holographic deception in three different places. Still, it could be pulled off, and as far as Toph knew, Walter never spied her as she used her bending to lightly glide across the fields of the farm and easily patch up the minor damage that resulted.

Both Antelope Boy, in his "harrier" morph, and Hawk Boy happened to have been flying around together not too far away, and easily spotted her heading back toward the ravine.

They'd hailed her, telling her it was nice to see her back as they swooped overhead and landed in the gully to meet her, Tobias staying as he was while Ax returned back to his Andalite body.

As always, Toph had regarded the morphing process with both wonder and a degree of revulsion. And now there was a current of anticipation, of eagerness, of wild, unfathomable speculation weaving through it.

Very soon, she would know what it was like to be a bird herself, to see in a dazzling, overwhelming variety of colors, to have a beak, to fly with them on feathered wings quite different from the bat's leathery ones. (She'd touched the wings of dead birds before several times.)

As if he'd read her mind somehow, she felt Tobias walk over and sit down beside her on her right.

"So," he asked, "how was your day out?"

"It was a lot of fun Hawk Boy," she told him, 'glancing' in his direction. "It was confusing too, but also educational. I'm sure grateful I have you guys and Olivia to help me understand at least some things about this crazy society and culture of yours," she said as she returned her attention to the fire.

"Well, we're happy to help you out, just like we did before with Ax-man."

She smiled before saying, "And I definitely had a great time getting to know Sunshine and Smart Aleck better. I've decided I totally _hate_ riding in cars though," she growled contemptuously.

"Yeah, Cassie's really nice," Tobias agreed. "As for Marco, he can be a pain in the butt sometimes, and annoying as hell, but he's still a pretty cool guy."

"Well, that's why we love him," Toph grinned, even as saying the words made her cheeks heat up and her heart beat a bit faster.

Hawk Boy laughed, laughed for several seconds.

"Yeah, I guess it is," he agreed wryly, chuckling. "Anyway, I bet you acquired a lot of animals as morphs today."

"Oh did I ever!" she grinned in excitement, spreading her hands apart. "I acquired everything from a squirrel to a grizzly bear-and a cougar too!"

"A grizzly bear huh? I hope Rachel won't have jealousy issues over that when she finds out," he muttered to himself.

Her brow furrowed. That bear's cage mate had battered one of her legs in the process of acquiring her, and now Hawk Boy had the nerve to imply it was a bad choice?

"Are you saying that I shouldn't have acqu-"

"Not at all," Tobias quickly replied, lowering his torso in the hawk form of appeasement. "Trust me Toph, you can acquire and morph whatever animals you please as part of our team, no questions asked. If you want a grizzly bear to use as a battle morph, that's cool."

(That is right,) Ax agreed from where he was lying just outside the mouth of the cave, enjoying the evening sun. She felt his uncanny stalk eyes turn in her direction as he remarked, (While there may be missions that require all of us or some of us to acquire and/or morph a specific species of animal, or we may recommend in a given situation that you morph a certain species over another due to its superior agility, strength, speed, ability to remain inconspicuous, and so forth, your choice of species to acquire is very much unrestricted.)

"Glad to hear that. But why would Rachel be jealous about me having a grizzly bear morph?"

"It's because that's her favorite morph to kick Yeerk butt in," Hawk Boy answered, now sitting erect once more. "It's kind of like if you had a beautiful, special statue in your house that you're really proud of. Then one day, you visit someone else's home, and you discover they have the same statue as you. It would be kind of a blow to your pride, like they're copying you, you know?"

Toph nodded.

"Like I said this morning though, she's pretty impressed by what I told her about how you whomped firebender and Dai Li butt, so I suspect she'll be delighted that a master fighter like you also chose a grizzly."

"Well I'm sure happy to have done it-even if her brother did rough my leg up," she added, wincing at the memory of the crushing pain.

"Ooh, that couldn't have felt good," Tobias cringed sympathetically.

(Although acquiring large animals always carries a significant and unavoidable amount of risk, that is still quite regrettable to hear,) Ax agreed. (May I assume you used morphing to repair your injuries?)

"Yep. After partly morphing Sunshine and changing back, I was good to go," she replied, laughing at the sheer insanity of it.

"Anyway, out of curiosity, what types of birds did you acquire at Cassie's barn?" Hawk Boy asked.

"Well, although I'd already acquired you, she brought out another hawk for me to acquire called a goshawk."

"Great choice," Tobias approvingly weighed in. "I've seen goshawks hunt before, and they are completely amazing. Not only can they shoot through the air like a dart, they think _nothing_ of zigzagging through branches and brush that you couldn't pay me enough to fly through when they're after prey. They don't miss a beat, and I'd sure hate to be the bird or squirrel that got chased by one."

(They are rather similar to my harrier in form,) Ax commented.

"Cassie told me that they'll actually chase down prey on foot if the brush is too thick for them to fly through."

"And you'd better believe it. I've seen them do that before too, chase chipmunks and rats around in thickets. They look like some sort of hell-chicken when they do that, the way their legs churn," he commented, causing Toph to laugh. "And they can kill some surprisingly big animals too, like geese and hares."

"Good Oma!"

"Yeah, they're pretty capable killers," he agreed. "Anyway, what other birds did you acquire?"

"Marco and I both acquired a raven, which also sound like very cool birds."

"Heh, figures he'd choose a raven," Hawk Boy said wryly. "Fits his personality to a tee."

"What are they like Hawk Boy?"

"Personally, I can't _stand_ them," he told her in exasperation. "Don't get me wrong, they look like an excellent bird to morph, and they're a lot more noble-looking than crows, but they'll mob birds of prey if they get half a chance, even team up to steal kills from them. I've had them do that to me several times, and it gets really old really fast, believe me. It's _especially_ fun when they strike you on the back with their feet or yank your tail feathers while you're just flying along trying to mind your own business," he griped.

"So they're like the ruffians of the bird world then."

"Yeah, basically. Like I said though, they're still a lot more respectable than crows. Cassie might've told you this already, but man, are they smart birds too. They're always thinking a step ahead."

"How smart are they Hawk Boy?"

"We're talking problem solving smart here. So smart it's shocking sometimes. They know how to open zippers, will watch smaller birds to learn where their nests are, will drop nuts and clams on rocks or streets to crack them open, and they always land on the ground in pairs or groups, so that coyotes and other predators can't sneak up on them."

Toph was impressed. "Sweetness," she grinned. "I'm going to like morphing this bird for sure."

"They're also very playful," Tobias mentioned. "They do amazing stunts in the air, will hang from branches by their feet or beak, absolutely love to roll and slide on their backs in the snow, and yes, prank other animals-like me," he growled in irritation.

"Cassie told me that it'll be an excellent morph for moving between here and Olivia's place without attracting too much attention."

"Yeah, you often see ravens in town and near the roads. They come there to eat animals that get hit by cars, raid the local birdfeeders, gobble up pet food, even make raids on trash cans. So yeah, you shouldn't attract too much notice in raven morph."

(All the same though,) Antelope Boy cautioned, (in the interest of security, I would advise taking different routes to Yzark's residence and arriving at different times each day, so as not to arouse the suspicion of any Controllers who may live in the area.)

"Definitely," Hawk Boy agreed. "Don't want them to realize there's a pattern. I'd also land and demorph in different places each time too, even it means a bit of a walk."

"Hey, whatever it takes to keep the slugs guessing," Toph shrugged. "And I've definitely got no problem with walking."

"Well, enough about the raven. What other birds did you acquire?"

"Let's see. I acquired a snow goose, a western gull, and a great horned owl. That was it for today."

"Great idea with the snow goose," Hawk Boy replied. "They're not exactly agile fliers, and they may not have any real weapons, but man, are geese ever good at getting from point A to point B in a hurry. They don't stop for anything unless they want to stop. I should probably acquire one sometime," he remarked meditatively.

"Kind of like earthbenders," she said with a proud smile.

He was somewhat more judgmental and scornful about the western gull, expressing his viewpoint that while it was a wonderful all-purpose bird morph, one that was perfect for traveling around urban areas, over water, and landing on the sea, they were still "greedy, screaming, undisciplined rats with wings."

In contrast, he made no secret of his admiration for her choice of the great horned owl...as well as his healthy fear of them.

"They mostly eat rabbits and rodents like muskrats, rats, and mice," he informed her, "but they will sometimes kill and eat hawks too. Any bird that's smaller than an eagle is fair game to them really. They sure put the fear in me when I roost each night."

It was a humbling, dismal thing for the earthbender to consider, how now that his true body was that of a red-tailed hawk, Tobias actually had to worry about things like that. Although he was a capable predator who had the freedom and safety of the skies-just like her bat-it brought home that his life was still very much a harsh, dangerous, terribly difficult existence.

"Sounds like they're quite the hunters."

"That's for sure. People think owls are cute and funny, but I can tell you they're far from that. They're no joke. You don't see them, and you don't hear them. Then _WHAM_, it's right there and grabbing you, never letting go until you're dead."

"Sunshine says they can kill turkey duc-I mean turkeys," she amended. _I'm learning, _she thought proudly.

"Yeah. I've seen them do it three different times out here in the woods-or at least the evidence that was left behind in the morning. And turkeys are pretty tough birds themselves."

"Whoa. That's one solid owl," she said, remembering the turkeys she'd sensed with her earthbending during her first day here in the forest.

"They dominate the night," he agreed.

(I apologize for interrupting,) Antelope Boy cut in, (but as long as Tobias and I are here to supervise and guard you during the process, perhaps you would like to practice morphing the horned owl and some of the other species you have acquired today?)

Eagerness and wild expectation surged up within the earthbender as she sprung to her feet, grinning in delight as she replied, "I'm more than ready to get started Antelope Boy. Let's head out to Sunshine's pastures and get to work trying out some new sets of eyes!"

"And you know," she added, "usually I'd walk to get there. But this evening guys," she knowingly self-proposed as she focused on the bat within her, feeling the itching sensation of the silky fur starting to grow, "I think I'm gonna _fly_ there instead."

* * *

**In Mandarin Chinese, xie xie means "thank you." Ni shi zhongguo nali de=Where in China are are you from?, while Cesuo zai nali=Where is the toilet? Zaijian of course, means goodbye. Interestingly, the waiter's response to Toph thanking him for praising her impressive braid translates as "Don't be polite." Basically, he was kind of telling her "Oh, it was nothing," or "I wouldn't have given you the compliment if it wasn't true."**

**I honestly did not originally intend to have Toph and Cassie discussing their journeys into puberty and the resulting frustrating changes together when I began this chapter. It was just the way the story wanted to go. ****The practice of leaping over a flight of three steps as many times is an actual Chinese ritual by the way, while the practice of eating red beans and glutinous rice to celebrate a girl's first period is from Japan. **

**Speaking of which, I just want to let all of you know right away, don't worry, we _definitely_ will not be having any Toph/Marco lemons in this fic, or much more than heavy petting really. Considering that by my estimation, Toph is no more than fourteen and a half years old here, while Marco is a few months shy of his seventeenth birthday, that would just be gross people. **

**Next chapter will feature some interesting morphing and-finally!-conclude Toph's amazing awesome Saturday!**


	15. Chapter 15

**And after three weeks, here's another one to enjoy.**

* * *

"Flying sounds good," Tobias agreed as he began to shift back to hawk, knees reversing direction with a chilling _CRACK_, as his body became smaller and tilted forward.

It was a little bit easier bending her body into the bat a second time, now that she knew roughly what to expect.

Still, there were many things Toph had to brace herself for.

Remembering the last occasion, she squatted down like a frog next to the column she'd been resting against, clinging to the presence of the stone felt through her feet and hands while she focused.

With a drawn-out grating sound, a tail began to grow, protruding through the left leg of her "underwear."

Her chest muscles ballooned out, ridiculously, impossibly big as her human lips melted away and her braid was softly sucked back up into her skull, the tie falling to the ground. She could still feel the delicate impact with her seismic sense.

She then began to shrink, the stone rushing up to meet her as her ears changed from shell-like human ones to the massive, cup shaped ones of the bat and slid further up her skull.

Her face bulged out and out into a soft, leathery muzzle that carried her nostrils to its tip.

Now there was the terrible, skin-crawling, brutal crack as her sternum was bashed outward to form a bow as her finger bones shot out over the rock, the pliable, naked skin growing between them like a wave gently breaking on a beach.

Her blunt molars changed into slicing cheek teeth, and there was another cringe-inducing sound as her ankles turned a full 180 degrees, the sole becoming much shorter as her toes became longer, thinner, and needle sharp claws rose from her toenails.

And once more there was the terrifying emptiness, the awful awareness as her ability to converse with, to command the earth and the world around her was snatched away. But now she knew it wouldn't be forever, and perhaps even better, she'd be gaining something good to compensate for that very shortly.

Then the miracle happened a second time as her shrinking body collapsed forward on the ground, the wonder of images, white and black and gray, surfacing on her optic lobe.

(Wow,) she said simply, bat mouth hanging open as she visually regarded the fire in front of her, a snapping, crackling mass that was all dancing white tongues and thin leaves of flame, as tall as hardwood trees from her perspective. (So this is what fire looks like,) she marveled. (It's beautiful.)

(Yes it is,) Hawk Boy agreed. (Dangerous too, but beautiful. And just wait until you see it in color.)

The bat didn't like being on the ground and so close to the fire at all, feeling the heat and smelling the terrifying, reeking odor of wood smoke. She wanted to get out of there and into the air desperately.

But Toph throttled the innate urge, perched on her wing claws as she regarded her campfire, blinking her eyes and slowly coming to a more complete understanding.

So, these waving, leaping, currently gigantic pointed pillars were what gave the Fire Nation its name, was the terrifying thing that Zuko and his people generated from their hands and feet with their own chi, the element that had been used so often against her own people over the past hundred years, that she'd felt scorching the forests and meadows to the bone far beneath her on the day of the comet, that burnt and destroyed.

Yet it also cooked her food, kept her warm and comfortable, brought life about and like now, was a safe, beneficial servant when controlled.

(Thinking about the Fire Nation?) Hawk Boy asked.

(Yeah,) she confirmed, angling her head for a moment in his direction. (Or more technically, their element, getting a better understanding of it now that I can...see,) she said in wonder, her voice once more becoming clotted with emotion and gratitude at the experience. (I'll never be able to tell you guys thank you enough for this,) she choked.

(There is no need to,) Antelope Boy assured her. (Knowledge of your gratitude and that we've done you a great kindness is sufficient enough.)

(Yeah. We're just happy to see you being happy and excited about it,) Hawk Boy chimed in.

She bared the bat's teeth in a sort of warmed smile.

(Anyway,) she said, coming back to the present, (time's wasting, so let's get up into the air!)

Without any further ado, she turned and skittered across the cave floor to the short, half-a-pace high pillar, the bat's mind deeply relieved to be moving away from the fire as Toph used her thumb claws like ice axes to climb about two-thirds of the way up and turn around so that she was hanging down.

Facing the weak light from the setting sun as it filtered through the cave entrance, she took a few moments to marvel at it before opening her mouth to start shrieking out an ultrasonic trill as she threw herself into space and rowed through it with her leather wings.

As Tobias flew above the canopy, and Ax ran over the forest floor, leaping over logs and rocks, Toph flickered among the trees and boughs, enjoying the bat's amazing agility and reflexes while she took everything in. And good Oma, did it _ever_ have energy! She was also psyching herself up for the new morphs, marrying the "sight" of the trees and rocks and leaves and bark and grass with the more understandable echo-pictures channeled through the bat's inner ears.

Having to rely on sight alone to find her way about, this exotic new sense, was a daunting, difficult prospect. But she was committed and would see it through in true earthbender style.

Once more, she laughed at the memory of how the hulking actor who'd played her so awesomely on stage had used the same method of "seeing" through sound as she was right now in bat morph. If only she could have a chat with him now...

Within a few minutes, all three of them were at one of Cassie's far fields.

Below her, Toph saw Ax come to a stop at the edge of the woods, clearly hesitant to risk showing himself. Either Hawk Boy must've told him in head-talk that it was okay to come out or the Andalite didn't sense anything suspicious though, for then he cantered out and cleared the wooden fence in a single, graceful leap as Tobias went into a steep glide earthward.

Toph did the same thing, watching the short grass and clover, a great field of little black and white daggers, grow taller and bigger in her vision, surrounding her and twice her height as she landed with a light little impact among them and began to change back.

Within a few minutes, she was her old self again. Human and blind, she sighed with pleasure as she felt the soil speaking to her once more. She was also both pleased and fascinated by the fact that the somewhat constricting underwear and sports bra Sunshine had given her had stuck with her to keep her embarrassing parts covered, even if she still felt rather immodestly underdressed with so much skin exposed to the dry, warm breeze.

"Well, let's get this freak show started," she commented as she rolled her head over her shoulders, keeping limber.

(Any idea which morph you want to try out first?) Hawk Boy asked from off to her right and in front of her.

"Yep. Since you told me so many awesome things about it Hawk Boy, and I figure its eyesight can't be too different from the bat's, I'm gonna morph the owl first," she grinned, placing her hands together.

(Just try not to let it take a swipe at me, that's all I can say,) Tobias warned.

"Eh, don't worry Hawk Boy. You'll be safe," she assured him as she closed her eyes and concentrated.

As she felt her teeth begin to fuse together, her lips become horny and tough, her fourth and fifth fingers start to shrink away as her other three became longer and scales began to grow from the skin of her ankles, she suddenly remembered how she'd partially morphed Sunshine earlier that afternoon to heal the wounds inflicted by Samson.

"I'm gonna try an experiment here guys," she told Ax and Tobias as carefully, she directed her jing to certain areas of her body while she focused on the morphing.

Distressing as it was, vulnerable as it made her feel, temporarily losing her bending every time she morphed was something Toph imagined she could get used to after a while.

But she couldn't conceive of _ever _becoming even close to comfortable with physically crossing the line between human and animal, listening to and feeling her own body parts warp.

The sickening grinding, crackling, screeching sounds began.

Her neck muscles almost completely withered away and her hair, flowing free and down to her hips, was pulled back up into her scalp as her entire head got bigger and bigger, like a waterskin being filled.

And meanwhile, her legs and feet were becoming shorter and shorter, squat and powerful. Scales covered her feet and her ankles lengthened, creaking as her little toe vanished and her great toe actually twisted around on her foot to face backward!

Her earlobes disappeared to leave behind mere holes, one of which migrated upward a bit on her head. That was definitely crazy. Why would an animal have an ear on a different height on its head from the other one?

Her pointer and middle fingers became long and broad and strong, growing like bamboo shoots.

And now the talons appeared. Lethal, curved weapons grew from Toph's now inert feet, sharp as spear points.

Her mouth had now become a narrow, hooked beak, with a sharp downward curve, the top half curving over the bottom and knife sharp.

There was a tickling, itchy sensation as all over her head and neck and changing arms and legs, feathers appeared and sprung up from her skin, including the pair of ear tufts which gave the bird its name.

But none appeared on her shrinking torso. Indeed, it was remaining entirely human. And that wasn't an accident.

(Wow!) Tobias said, deeply impressed. (That is pretty darn cool Toph. Looks like Cassie has some competition now when it comes to impressive morphing skills.)

(Hah, that's pretty much what Smart Aleck said. Not that I'm tired of hearing it though.)

(Remarkable,) Ax agreed. (You are now our group's second _estreen_, which is quite an honor.)

(Estreen? What in Oma's name does that word mean?)

(It translates as 'morph dancer,' or simply that you have a particular talent for how you direct the changes of your body during morphing,) Antelope Boy explained.

If her lips hadn't been replaced by a beak, Toph would've given them a wide, cocky grin of satisfaction at the knowledge.

(Talented huh?) she repeated. (Awe-some. Figures I would be though, since I'm already so awesome at everything else.)

Both Hawk Boy and Ax laughed good-naturedly at that, Tobias evenly commenting, (You'd sure make a great Andalite, I can tell that much about you.)

She'd spent enough time around Antelope Boy already to get the jist of his remark.

(Hey, when you're amazing, you're amazing,) she responded, perhaps a little defensively.

(Definitely nothing wrong with being proud of something you're awesome at,) Hawk Boy agreed.

All this time, her eyes were swelling, bulging freakishly in their sockets. In spite of her blindness, Toph knew that eyes took the form of round balls in your head. The owl's eyes however, were wide tubes in her skull, so huge they were fixed in place and practically touching in her skull.

Then she could see! For the third time in her life, she had a pair of working eyes! It was a flash, a rush of new sensory information that made her recoil and jump.

And what eyes they were!

(Whoa!) she gasped. (That. Is. Amazing!)

And it was!

This seeing business already strained her mind to the limit as a bat. And now there was a further difference.

The owl's vision registered "black" and "white" and "gray" like the bat's eyes did. But she was also seeing something else as well.

The sky above her, when she tilted her head upward, was a different, whole new type of "darker" color, strewn with countless white dots that had to be stars! How beautiful!

She stared up in joy and wonder, blinking. Her friends, guards, servants, parents, students-they'd all told her about stars, their glory and ethereal beauty as they spangled the night sky.

And now here they were. Not something sculpted by her imagination, not a vision or mineral-based analogy from a particularly descriptive companion or author who made her believe on some level she was seeing them. This was the true, awe-inspiring thing, seeming close enough to touch.

(Need help explaining what you're looking at?) Hawk Boy offered. (I'm sure it's throwing you for a loop.)

(Yeah, but after I finish the body bending first.)

The bird's hearing was astonishing too.

For reasons only he knew, during their time in Ba Sing Se, Meathead had once persuaded her and Katara to take part in an experiment. He'd had both girls stand on a thick carpet to block the earthbender's seismic sense while he dropped various objects at different distances from the pair to test how sharp Toph's hearing was when compared to his sister. Later, he'd done it a second time with Twinkletoes.

In the end, Sokka had concluded that compared to sighted people, Toph's hearing was about four or five times sharper. But the owl's was twice as good!

Standing in the field, a human torso with an owl's head, neck, wings, and legs, she could hear voles scampering through the dry grass, Cassie's horses feeding, insects singing and a bird shifting position on a branch in the woods behind her.

She could also quite plainly hear and see Hawk Boy, still standing a pace and a half in front of her and to her right. He was watching her a bit warily, his bird body slightly tensed-and with good reason.

Thoughtfully, she looked at and worked her talons in the dirt as she now let her torso change, mighty weapons that could clamp down with a grip ten times stronger than any man could hope to generate, forceful enough to break a man's arm.

As with the bat, there was the sharp, cringe-inducing crack as her breastbone burst outward, and Toph felt both her "sports bra" and "underwear" fuse into her shifting flesh and vanish as soft, brown feathers replaced them, growing in a wave from her shoulders to her hips as she finished shrinking.

There was a sucking, squelching sound from inside her abdomen as her digestive system, long and complex in order to process rice, fruit, wheat-barley, and other foods containing fiber and cellulose, changed into the owl's much shorter gut, adapted for the simpler task of digesting a diet of nutrition-packed raw meat.

From her lungs, seven pouches expanded into different parts of her body cavity, air sacs that kept the owl's body light and well supplied with oxygen, forming links with and extending into the bones of her skull, her upper arms, her thighs, her vertebrae. Unlike the way the bat's had practically raced along, her new heart actually was beating about a third more slowly than her own did, at least while the owl was at rest.

When you look at an owl, a lot of what seems like body mass is merely feathers. They're actually fairly wiry underneath. In this new body, Toph Beifong looked like she weighed ten pounds, but only weighed a little over four as she blinked her huge yellow eyes and stared in awe at the meadow around her. A healthy newborn baby weighed more than she did.

But the horned owl was no weakling. Like the bender herself, she was stocky and strong, deceptively so. Toph approved.

Her flight muscles appeared, and her bones became hollow, lighter as air from the air sacs flowed into them, pumped into her body by the action of the muscles that moved her sternum in and out like a bellows of bone and flesh. The change was now complete as she blinked those massive tubular eyes.

And then the owl's mind turned on.

Right away, she understood what Hawk Boy meant when he'd said that there was nothing cute or amusing about owls. This bird was all business. And its business was killing.

The best term to describe the owl's mind was simply grim, like Xin Fu's. It was almost entirely a creature of instinct, with very little capacity for intelligence and problem solving.

The only emotional attachments she was capable of forming were with a male of her kind or with the chicks that would result from the former bond. All other creatures were either prey to be killed when hungry or possible enemies not to be trusted.

Right now, hunger was at the forefront of the owl's mind. She wanted to take to the air, to fly through the trees in utter silence or perch on a branch, always listening and watching for something to pounce on and kill. She would line the quarry up with her talons and hit it like a falling brick, crushing its spine and piercing its lungs before flying off to the nearest wide bough to devour it.

And that quarry could be anything. Skunks, rabbits, and muskrats were especially choice entrees, but she'd settle for nearly anything. It could be a June bug, a deer mouse, a Canada goose, even a nasty, tough as nails, toothy raccoon or stray cat.

The eagle might be the king of the birds, but the horned owl was their lord.

(Toph? You have a handle on your morph?) Hawk Boy asked uncertainly. (I sure hope you do.)

(I'm good Hawk Boy,) she assured him. (But wow, like you said, this is one bird that doesn't play around.)

The owl in her was suspicious of the hawk, and wanted to puff out her/their feathers to intimidate him. Since he was dangerous, well-armed prey and was looking right at her, there was no sense in trying to attack him now. Still, red-tails were competitors for prey and nest sites, and this one might try to attack her here on the ground. A further reason to take to the wing right now.

(Ready to give it a test run?)

(I guess I am. But first, you've gotta tell me about this crazy new stuff I'm seeing, like what is this whole new color I'm seeing up in the sky?)

(That's called dark blue,) he replied. (Or if you wanna get technical, midnight blue. During the day though, the sky's a lot lighter shade of blue.)

(I know that already Hawk Boy,) she said dismissively. (Other people have told me about the sky's color changes.)

(Anyway,) she went on, (anything I should know before I try to fly? I mean, I'm pretty much used to flying as the bat now, but these bird wings and body are a lot different,) she stated as she extended her wings for emphasis. The idea of having to fly around without any help from the echolocation that filled in for her seismic sensing, being forced to rely only on a restricted, alien sense that she was just managing to wrap her mind around made her quite nervous.

(Well, you couldn't have picked a better instructor to help you out with that than me, Bird-boy,) Tobias wryly, proudly assured her, his demeanor so much like her own at that moment it made her laugh in recognition. (And actually, if anything, flying in a bird morph is simpler, less work than it is as a bat.)

(Interesting to know, but I'll have to rely just on...my vision Hawk Boy, which is like nothing I'm used to.)

(Hey, we understand your brain isn't used to getting visual information,) Tobias kindly told her. (But the owl's sure is, and let it lead the way, just like the bat. Still,) he added, (it wouldn't hurt to have you spend a bit of time figuring out the concept of hand/eye coordination-or in your case talon/eye coordination-first. Then I'll give you a demonstration of how to get into the air, fly a little, and then land safely. How does that sound?)

(Sounds great Hawk Boy,) she told him, inwardly grinning at the amusing irony that she, an instructor and teacher of a strange new ability, was now the one in the role of student.

Toph spent the next fifteen minutes or so figuring out and getting sufficiently used to the idea of visual spatial perception, remembering her experiences in bat morph and using her talons, beak, and wings to touch various objects or body portions Ax and Tobias presented to her. Sticks. Leaves, fresh or dead. Ax's tail blade, left forehoof, the tuft of fur on his hock. Grass of course. A beetle. Some horsehair. Hawk Boy's tail feathers, taloned feet, open wings.

There was also the matter of getting used to the owl's sight itself too. The bat's sight had been sharp and detailed, rendering the edges of objects in great resolution.

The owl's sight was even better than the bat's was, and she could turn her head through three-quarters of a circle, looking over her own shoulders in the blink of an eye to focus on the source of a sound. But somewhat like whenever Toph stood on sand, small objects and the outlines of larger ones were fuzzy, indistinct to the owl. The main, center portions stood out quite clearly though, even if they were still a bit grainy. Her owl instincts found movement and differences in general shape to be more important and interesting.

Then it was time.

True to his word, Tobias showed her the ropes. The first step was to crouch down against the ground. Then, as you jumped into the air, you stretched out and forcefully beat your wings to get airborne. Then it was just a matter of tucking your legs against your body and letting yourself go into a level position as you gained altitude, wing strokes steady and strong as you let the bird walk you through it.

He glided over to the rail fence several paces away, showing her how you glided up to your chosen perch, fanned out your tail and wing feathers as you threw your feet out in front of you, grasped it, and clenched down, flinging yourself forward slightly as you came to a stop.

(And that's it,) he finished as he jerkily turned on the fence to face her. (Nothing to it.)

_Well, then here we go_, Toph thought in determined anticipation as she crouched down in the grass and catapulted herself into the air, heart kicking into a much higher gear, chest muscles straining as she worked to generate lift. And flew.

The maiden flight was jerky and unsteady, Toph frantically angling her tail feathers about to maintain control. And when she landed in the grass, rather short of her target, it was more of an undignified flop onto her chest than her feet. But she half-jumped, half-fluttered back to her original place and tried once more.

That second attempt was hardly any better, although she did do a better job with landing in the grass as Tobias and a grazing Ax looked on.

But true to form, the third time was the charm, and Toph flew beautifully on the owl's wings, leveling off about a pace's height from the grass.

(Yes!) she exulted. (I did it! I rule! I'm so awesome!)

(Way to go Toph!) Tobias praised.

(Nicely done,) Ax agreed.

Extremely pleased with herself, she wheeled about and showed off her new skills by heading for Tobias and doing an impressive, graceful flyby, exclaiming (Whoo-hoo!) as she did so, grinning inwardly.

And when she turned again, aiming at the fence, to land at his right side, she stuck the landing almost perfectly.

(You know, I think I've really gotten the hang of flying as a bird more or less,) she proudly reflected. (Why don't you join me in the air too?)

(Be glad to,) Tobias replied as they leapt into the air together, gaining altitude and flying over the fields in perfect formation.

They flew together for about half an hour through the forest and in the open as Toph, her fringed wings beating in complete silence, practiced swooping, landing on different sized perches, moving through the trees, slashing at targets on the wing, and other skills that would be useful against the Yeerks. It was a giddy, sensational feeling.

All the while though, she was aware that there were a lot of other morphs she'd better try out as well. So once she'd felt she'd gotten a good grasp of her horned owl morph and what it could do, she flew back to the pasture.

She landed in the grass and demorphed, directing the process so that her fearsome, crushing owl feet were the first to change, reverting back to long-soled, short-toed human ones that could sense the earth beneath them again.

Feathers melted away to be replaced by fine hair and soft, bare skin as her bones thickened, solidified, and like her innards, became dramatically longer.

For a few seconds, as she grinned at her companions with a human mouth, she kept just the owl's glaring eyes and out spread wings, resembling some terrifying dark angel, enjoying showing off. Then her world went dark and the feathers were drawn up into the inner surface of her arms as bird fingers became human ones.

When she was fully human, she stood there for a few moments, teeth bared in a smile of ecstasy and breathing hard.

"Man," she exclaimed, "that was so much fun! And the power that bird has too! Thanks for giving me that demonstration and flying with me Hawk Boy."

(No problem,) he replied. (So, any other morphs you want to try out before hitting the hay?)

She placed her left hand to her chin and considered for a moment.

"I think I'll bend into the horse now," she proposed, thinking of Penelope. "I could use some time as an animal that's stuck on good solid ground. Heck, both you guys have horse morphs too, so why don't we all go for a run together?"

(I for one would enjoy such a diversion,) Antelope Boy approved. (While this planet is home to many wondrous and magnificent species, I must admit that I find horses to be particularly aesthetically striking. Plus, their form is quite similar to mine-and certainly much more stable and sensible than a human's.)

(Sometimes, as long as they're not too close to the house, Ax likes to run with Cassie's horses out here, hang out with them,) Tobias commented privately to her. (It took them a while to trust him, but now they're pretty much used to an Andalite in their midst. And it makes him feel like part of a herd again, you know?)

Toph nodded, feeling her hair slide up and down her back slightly as she did so.

(Anyway, that's cool with me too,) he finished "out loud."

As they all began to bend into horses, Toph used her chi to play with the process again.

She had her ears change first, mobile diamonds of flesh that began to slide up toward the top of her head. A tail grew from between her hips, long and bearing a great whisk of hair as most of her fingers shrunk, fused together, and disappeared, leaving the middle one to become a great blocky hoof, but still with some elements of a human hand.

Then she had her arms change next, extending out and out with a creepy grinding sound as her shoulders and hips became covered in huge muscles.

Still standing on human feet, she felt her face bulging out in front of her, eyes sliding over to the sides of her head as her jowls became massive, heavy semicircles of bone, her nostrils flaring impossibly wide.

For a few moments, struggling a little to hold up a head that was part-human, part horse, her thickened neck covered in a crest that was part human hair, part mane, a tail dangling from her hips, her hands malformed, horn-covered, inhuman things, and starting to sport a noticeable potbelly, Toph stopped the morph and stayed in that freakish form as she felt her companions bend their own bodies.

(I've gotta say, you're sure doing a disturbingly good job of looking like a refugee from the Island of Dr. Moreau right now Toph,) Tobias commented. (Cassie would be impressed though.)

(Dr Mah-what now?) she asked in confusion as she began to finish the morph, feeling itchy as a coat of fine, sleek hair grew in a wave from her head to her feet and her back became broader.

(It is a reference to the premise and plot of a classic, if dated, work of human science fiction,) Antelope Boy explained. (While the idea of drastically altering an animal's appearance, intelligence, and instinctive behavior solely through surgery and subliminal conditioning to more closely resemble a human's is biologically laughable,) he snorted, (it is still a wonderful allegory about the animal nature to be found within all human beings, and the struggle to keep it in check through agreed-upon moral rules, as well as a caution against interfering with the natural order.)

(Not to go on all fours, that is the Law. Are we not Men?) Tobias added knowingly, with dry amusement. Obviously it was a passage from the story, and the irony of it made Toph laugh silently.

(Well, if going on all fours is prohibited on that island, we'd be quite the little band of lawbreakers right now, wouldn't we?) she smirked.

Hawk Boy laughed. (Yeah, I guess we would. We're definitely the farthest thing from people at the moment too-and some of us more than others,) he added dryly.

Suddenly the weight of the bender's mutating head and chest was too much, and she gave a loud shout as she pitched forward to the grass, accompanied by a bizarre whinny as the wind was knocked out of her.

(AAAHHHHH!)

THUD!

(Are you all right Toph?) Ax asked.

After taking a few labored breaths, she assured him, (I'm good Antelope Boy. It was just quite the jolt, that's all.)

There was a loud crack as her knees became the backward facing hocks of the horse, and her human feet became hooves, leaving them "blind."

As she carefully shifted her weight and gingerly stood up on Penelope's legs, her head and torso became fully horse.

Again, the wonder of seeing, seeing through the largest eyes of any land mammal, making her grin her mare teeth in excitement.

Unlike the bat or the owl, the horse had a mind-bogglingly huge range of vision, one that just curved on and on around the bender's new body, primarily focused on the horizon. That made sense, Toph thought, since their eyes were on the sides of their head after all. And like the owl's, they were especially attuned to movement.

It was also similar to how her seismic sensing abilities detected everything around her in a great radiating circle-but not totally.

That was because the horse couldn't see all that well in front of her. She couldn't see her own legs or chest, and there was an area directly in front, two-thirds of a pace long, that just didn't register. It was like trying to send her earthbending through dead leaves.

The horse's eyes also had difficulty judging how close objects were to her. She could figure out the _relative_ distance of an object to her credit, but not with any precision. Nor could the mare see directly behind her, which meant Toph had to swing her head around to see back there. All in all though, the horse saw pretty well and definitely saw a lot.

The horse's hearing was great too, each upright ear rotating independently to listen to, concentrate on, two different sounds at once. It certainly wasn't as good as the bat's or owl's ears, but still much better than a person's. The master bender could now hear different, once hidden notes in the calls of insects, some of the echolocation clicks of the bona fide bats that darted through the sky above them, a rat gnawing a seed, and the sound of a rabbit feeding in the pasture about forty paces away, among other things.

And the sense of smell! Even the sharpened sense of smell her blindness had given Toph was _nothing_ when compared to this! With the horse's enormous nostrils, she could smell right away that Hawk Boy had morphed a stallion, and Ax was a mare, like her. She smelt the quality of the grass beneath her hooves and that a herd of three other horses had passed nearby about three hours ago, their gender and how healthy they were, soil, deer urine, decaying leaves. Toph even smelt herself, or more specifically the scents left during the short time she'd been in her natural body.

(Whoa!) Toph cried out in surprise. (This horse has one amazing nose on it!)

(Yeah,) Hawk Boy agreed. (It's like a punch, the way it hits you. And frankly, you start to wonder how you ever made it through life with such a feeble sense of smell.)

(No kidding.)

The mind and instincts of Penelope's new doppelganger surfaced to join the earthbender's then.

The dominant one was wariness, a constant background urge to pay attention, be suspicious and never let your guard slip.

(Wow,) Toph commented as she clamped down on the horse mind, rearing slightly. (Quite the nervous Nings, aren't they?)

(Heh, for sure,) Tobias agreed.

(Their cautious demeanor is certainly quite similar in some ways to us Andalites,) Antelope Boy said, (and indeed, often more intensely so.)

As she felt the mare's instincts, Toph understood then that so much of the horse's behavior was based on being able to successfully detect and hopefully avoid a deadly trinity of large predators; wolves, brown bears, and big cats like lions and cougars.

It was the cats that scared the horse the most. Terrifying as they were, at least when wolves or bears attacked you usually saw them coming in the open, at a flat-out run, giving you plenty of time to at least try to gallop away, lose yourself in the herd. But cats stalked you, waited in ambush, and all the horse could do was hope to see or smell them in time to keep from being clawed down.

The horse was also fairly intelligent as well, with an ability to learn. She had a sense of her body, could recognize her unique identity, and had the ability to anticipate events in the future. In short, the mare was self-aware.

She could solve simple problems, understand concepts like "tree" and "water," and place both ideas and objects into different mental categories.

The scent of Ax's mare and Hawk Boy's stallion reassured the horse. They were a herd, a group to belong to, welcome companions who would help keep watch for danger. The stallion would guard them, protect her from predators and any other stallions who might try to abduct her, father and defend her foals. She also took note of how the grass was grazed short around them.

That was good. When the land was flat and the grass was short, the cats and the bears had a very hard time sneaking up on you. Not that there was anything dangerous to smell to begin with.

(I have to say guys, being a horse is pretty cool,) she commented as she thoughtfully walked in a circle, testing her new legs.

(Most definitely,) Hawk Boy agreed. (Not as cool as a hawk though!)

(Well, let's get to it,) Toph said cheerily. (Let's go running.) And so they did.

Horses love to run. The earthbender soon decided she liked the feeling too, the way her horse legs stretched and folded up beneath her, the pleasant burn in her muscles, the animal's speed and endurance.

Flying ruled on so many levels, but it was also _really_ nice to be in a morph that stayed solidly planted on the ground for once. Even if the earth was currently a soft, distant, blank firmness, it was still just _wonderful_ feeling and hearing the horse's heavy hooves pounding into the dirt with a satisfying impact, gravel and dust spraying out behind them, the wind in your mane and tail, streaming out like banners.

It was a really weird sensation, running on all fours, and on what were basically the tips of your middle fingers and toes at that. Toph's human instincts kept on telling her to get out of this awkward position, to stand erect, get her hands and chest off, off, away from the ground. But of course, she couldn't.

As they ran, she noticed a great, mostly complete "white" disk hanging in the eastern sky, bathing everything in a serene, beautiful silver glow.

Entranced, she jogged to a stop, raising her horse head and swinging it about to focus at it with her right eye.

(Oh Tu Gong!) she cried in excitement and astonishment. (Is that...I mean, am I actually looking at the MOON right now guys?!)

(You sure are,) Tobias replied.

(Yes, that is earth's lone moon,) Antelope Boy confirmed.

Wow! (It's so...)-she struggled, overwhelmed, to find the words-(heavenly. So pure, and so BRIGHT...and just so incredibly...well, BEAUTIFUL!)

(It really is,) Hawk Boy agreed. (And I especially love the way it transforms everything at night, makes everything it touches seem like it's plated with silver. I can't imagine what it's like for you, what you're feeling, seeing it for the first time.)

(Beyond words,) Toph said simply, her voice catching again as she regarded, mentally grasped the "pale" glowing disc, once utterly unknowable and intangible in its lofty position, an inhabitant of a blank void. Now this was the celestial body that had heavy cultural significance for her people, giving its name to moon gates, moon peaches, delicious moon cakes, was associated with gentleness and brightness-_yeah, definitely "bright_,_"_ she thought-a token of abundance, harmony, and luck. Its cycles were the basis of the Earth Kingdom calendar, was celebrated during their lunar new year and the mid-autumn festival.

And of course, it was both teacher and source of power for Sugar Queen and her fellow waterbenders, creator of tides, wife of the sun.

(It's almost a spiritual experience, really, it blows me away that much-and that's not exactly something I feel often,) she added.

(I'd imagine this must be for you,) Tobias said simply. (Yeah.)

The mention of spirits added another new dimension to her awed contemplation of the moon, reminding her of a girl whom she'd never met, but was never far from Meathead's heart, and Toph found herself giving a mild whinny of excitement, unable to keep from lightly rearing for a few moments as she energetically shouted, laughing, (Hey there Yue! How you doing up there? I can finally see you doing your moon thing now!)

The intellectual part of Toph's mind knew it was pretty doubtful that the former Water Tribe princess was actually doing her moon duty stuff not just on her own moon, but on this "Earth" world's too-and frankly, it made sense that there must be a _separate_ moon spirit-goddess who took care of things around here-but still, the emotional part couldn't help itself.

(Who is this Yu-oh yes, your companion Sokka's former love who ascended to a higher plane of existence,) Ax remembered.

(More like turned into a magic fish or something. Though I guess you could say that,) Toph mentally shrugged. (Even now I still don't fully get it.)

All three of them ran on through the fields, Toph constantly raising her head to savor and reel in the sight of the moon and stars. They truly were wonderful to look at! Finally, the night sky was making sense to her.

Excited, in the moment, she began to sing, the song she'd heard from Marco's dad's weird "CD player" coming back to her. (Ain't nothing gonna break my stride/ Nobody's gonna slow me down/ Oh-no, I got to keep on moving!) It seemed fitting, if for no other reason.

(Cool choice for a running song,) Tobias approved. (As for mine...I've been through the desert on a horse with no name/ It felt good to be out of the rain/ In the desert, you can remember your name/ Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain/ la la la la la la la...) he belted out.

As she watched Ax run alongside her with her left eye, she decided that she wanted more from him than just his friendship.

(Antelope Boy?)

(Yes Toph?)

(After we change back to our true selves, or just anytime later, can I acquire you?)

The Andalite's horse eyes widened in surprise as he briefly stumbled, skidding for a moment or two as he snorted.

(Absolutely not,) he said firmly as he regained his stride.

(But why can't I?) she asked, getting a bit irritated. (I mean, it's not like it'll hurt you or anything. And if seeing out of two eyes is this cool, I'd love to experience what it's like to see out of four! I mean, that must be insane!)

(It certainly provides an extraordinary range of vision, but once more, you may not acquire me,) Ax replied.

(You've let _me_ acquire you, Ax-man,) Tobias pointed out. (And I can't exactly see Toph doing anything bad with it,) swinging his head in her direction.

(I know this Tobias,) Ax acknowledged. (But that was for an especially desperate situation, vital in order to deceive the Yeerks and make them believe that the Anti-Morphing Ray was a failure. Besides-)

Antelope Boy was "silent" then for several moments. Still, Toph got the impression he was continuing to communicate with Hawk Boy in head-talk, only altering it so she couldn't detect the words. It only frustrated her even more.

(You know, what's your big problem with letting me acquire you?!) she snapped. (I mean, it's not like I'd be enslaving you or something like the Yeerks, and since they already think you guys are Andalites anyway, I could morph you to help trick them and maintain the gang's cover!)

(She has a good point there Ax,) Tobias mentioned.

(I can appreciate the tactical logic behind that,) the Andalite recognized, addressing them both. (But I find the idea of you morphing me to be, well, disturbing. Uncomfortable, if that is any help in understanding.)

(I guess I can see how that could be creepy, maybe even in poor taste for you,) she sighed, inwardly slumping in disappointment. (And hey, it's your body, not mine. There goes my dream of having four eyes and a sweet tail blade,) she grumbled, a bit ruefully.

(Well, maybe not,) Hawk Boy said thoughtfully.

That caught her attention. (What do you mean, Hawk Boy?)

(Well, to make a long story short, we Animorphs know about at least two other Andalites-not counting Visser Three's host, obviously-living on Earth, but who can't fight alongside us due to physical reasons.)

(You mean they're handicapped?)

(Yeah, pretty much. Their DNA should be just fine to morph though.)

(Really? That would be SO great if you could bring one of them here for me to acquire!) the bender enthused, showing her horse teeth as they made a turn away from a fence.

(No promises, but we'll try,) Hawk Boy told her. (First though, Ax-man and I need to discuss who'll be the best choice for you and how they'd feel about it. Just give us a few minutes to talk in private thought-speak, okay?)

(Sure thing Bird Boy,) she happily told him. So you could direct this head-talk to a specific person if you wanted to. Very cool, she thought, patiently waiting for their answer as the moonlight shone down and six pairs of hooves pounded against the dirt.

* * *

**Tobias**

I had to admit, it was so cool watching Toph joyfully react to being able to see the stars and the moon for the first time in her life. And as for touching? Well, that's too weak a word to describe witnessing the transformation, her wonder at being able to see such simple things that the rest of us took for granted. My true father's gift wasn't always a curse.

It was impressive to watch not just how talented she was at directing her body while morphing, but how _good_ she was at getting control of all the animals she'd morphed so far. The instincts would kick in and within seconds, Toph had gotten the bat, the owl, the horse under control.

That was some food for thought right there. The way I figured it, being blind, Toph had spent her entire life coping with it by cultivating a strong will, one that knew how to adapt, triumph over matter. And with her crazy bending ability, it made sense that she would have an intimate awareness and understanding of her body, how to use it.

Already I felt kind of like a proud, thrilled, older brother, and I knew Ax did too.

(So Ax-man,) I told him privately, (since Toph seems to have her heart set on acquiring an Andalite, and you've politely declined, that obviously leaves either Gafinilan or his roommate as her only choices.)

(Precisely,) Ax said. (But unfortunately for her, while Gafinilan would certainly be a physically impressive individual to acquire and use for battle or deception, both his attitude and the genetic Stoola's disease that is taking his life render that possibility highly improbable, even futile.)

(Well, maybe since she'd be creating a whole new copy of Gafinilan from his DNA, and Stoola's disease must take time to display advanced symptoms, Toph's Andalite body would be a healthy one whenever she morphed him?) I suggested.

(Perhaps,) Ax said thoughtfully, (especially since she is a different species from Andalites-and you humans, for that matter. But it is also equally likely that as soon as she morphed Gafinilan, the Stoola's disease would also appear in the same advanced state.)

(And besides Tobias,) he pointedly added, (can you imagine how he would react to such a proposition? We already know how little he thinks of humans already. Having a being that looks and speaks almost exactly like them, to say nothing of being both blind and female, wanting to acquire him? He would view the very idea as a supreme insult, even more than I.)

(Okay, so Gafinilan's out,) I agreed as all three of us ran on. (What about having her acquire Mertil?)

Ax was silent for a bit.

(Yes,) he said at length. (That is certainly a feasible possibility. For one thing, whether you necessarily agree with it or not, he is indebted to us for rescuing him from Yeerk captivity. Allowing one of us to acquire his DNA would be an appropriate way to repay that debt. Nor do I think there would be as much stigma attached to having a fellow _velcol_ acquire him, as opposed to someone with a sounder body.)

(So Mertil it is then.)

(It's worth a try,) Ax agreed.

(Cool. Should I go get in touch with him tomorrow, or you wanna do it?)

(I'll be the one to go to Gafinilan's home Tobias,) Ax volunteered. (Having a fellow Andalite make the proposal would be best. You should contact Erek or one of the other Chee during that time however, to ensure that Mertil can travel here safely without detection.)

(Will do,) I said.

Switching back to public thought-speak, I told Toph, (Well Toph, not to get your hopes up, but I think we have the perfect Andalite for you to meet and acquire tomorrow evening.)

(You do?) she replied in delight. (That would be so awesome if he agrees!)

(I think he will though.)

(What's his name?)

(Mertil,) Ax informed her. (And through him you may experience the glory of an Andalite body!)

* * *

In her natural body once more, Toph felt the earth speaking to her through her bending as she pulled the horse blanket over her body, briefly laughing at the irony of now having actually _been _the very animal it was truly meant for.

She was both tired and excited all at once, her mind abuzz and straining as she ruminated over the beauty and wonder of the night sky, how it shone and glittered, white against "dark blue."

After changing out of horse morph, she'd then proceeded to body bend into the impressively smart, attentive feral pig. Then the hyperactive, playful weasel. Then she'd morphed the fox, and had headed home in that body before changing back for the night, exhausted by all the changes.

Ax was off feeding in the pasture, and Tobias had settled down on the ledge to roost.

They bid each other good night, and then both slipped off into slumber as the fire crackled.

During that time, Toph dreamed that the Ellimist came to her again, telling her to open her eyes as wide as she could. When she did, he placed the tips of two small paintbrushes to her eyeballs, painting on a panoramic rendering of all the stars in the sky for her to see.

Later she dreamed of turning into a horse and running among a great herd of Andalites as Yue, in all her ethereal beauty, rode upon her back, sweetly laughing. It was a crazy, alien patchwork of vibration sense and sight that then made her snap awake in confusion, blinking into the familiar darkness.

Later still, sleeping once more, a real horned owl hooted nearby, causing Tobias to perk up and shift uneasily on his perch.

The sound and vibrations of his talons scraping against the stone traveled to the earthbender, causing her to briefly become half-awake, as if suspended in thick fog.

But she made herself fall back into slumber. For in the dream she was caught in, she'd been holding hands with Smart Aleck under the shining silver moon, sitting in a field of sweet-smelling flowers, and Toph didn't want to be cut off from such a pleasant fantasy.

* * *

**Yep, the Animorphs now have another estreen in the group. While I know that this may seem like a pointless filler chapter to some, I did put some important and interesting things in here that _will_ be important to the plot later.**

**Freaky and wildly scientifically implausible as it is, The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of my favorite works of classic sci-fi. Considering that a fairly decent movie version of it was released in 96', the same year as The Invasion, I'm pretty surprised no references were ever dropped in the series. **

**In the next chapter, Toph will meet Mertil, make some friends outside the Animorphs, and bond with Rachel over mutual war stories. **


	16. Chapter 16

**Well, here's another chapter to enjoy readers! And guess what!? For the first time ever, I have FAN ART for this fic, the first I've EVER received! (There's a flourish of trumpets, random soldiers fire a 21-gun salute, drums are beaten, confetti falls, crowds cheer)**

**You can see a poster for Body Bending by kheetor84 on DeviantArt. Check it out!**

**Aang: Well, you're just so good, I never doubted it would happen someday. Congratulations Nathan.**

**Me: Aww, thanks Avatar Aang, that's so nice of you! But now it's back to the adventures of the Blind Bandit.**

**Aang: Can't wait.**

* * *

Dawn. As was typical of an early fall morning, it came cold, tensing Toph's muscles and making the fine hairs on her arms and legs stand rigid as she tucked her extremely long hair over her body and then lightly embraced herself to hold some of the heat in. Being dressed only in the curious garments known as a sports bra and bike shorts didn't help matters either.

(You feeling cold?) Hawk Boy asked from her right.

Turning, she glanced at him with Cassie's eyes and some facial features, his body still an indistinct, sloped, partly hunched shape standing on two legs beside her in the graying morning light.

He was here to make sure that neither of Sunshine's parents saw the earthbender while she was out here in the pasture, seated on a sort of throne she'd bent out of the bedrock deep beneath the topsoil and would of course later eliminate all traces of. But he would also help her interpret what she would be seeing during the next hour or so.

Because today, she was determined that she was going to get to know, completely know, the world of color in all of its beauty and glory, and what better way to start out than watching her first sunrise?

"Kind of," she replied. "But I'll be okay. Oh-kayy. How cold _does_ it get around here though, Hawk Boy?"

(Not too bad here in California,) he replied. (It can get chillier at night and tends to rain more in the winter. I lived in Connecticut for a while though before being shipped off back here, and it gets a LOT colder than this there, with plenty of frost and snow to trudge through-not to mention bitter, freezing winds. Aren't you glad the Ellimist sent you here instead?) he joked.

"Sure am," she agreed. "Not sure I could handle cold like that," she grumbled, remembering what Sugar Queen and Meathead had told her about their homeland. "And Snoozles and his sister say the cold is even worse where they come from, to the point where just taking a breath can feel like you're being choked. I'd guess they're used to it though."

(Sometimes you get days like that in Connecticut during the winter too, or even here, up in the mountains during a blizzard. Anyway, what's the weather like around Gaoling?) Tobias asked.

"Fairly nice," she shrugged. "It's somewhat wetter than what you say it normally is here, and summers can be pretty hot and kind of humid. Hue-miduh. Sometimes we get snow during the winter, but rarely serious amounts of it. Most of the time it's just cold and frosty out, with some freezing rain."

For now, the light surrounding them as they spoke, filtering through the trunks of the trees, was "pale" like that of the moon, thin and bluish in "color." Some birds began to sing, here and there.

And then, the light, coming at an angle, began to become stronger, its color...changing.

She watched in awe, struggling to understand, drinking everything in as the last stars disappeared from the heavens and the sky turned different, whole new types of colors in unhurried, dramatic waves.

Hawk Boy helpfully told her what they were, stating that the one which replaced the dark blue was called "dark purple." In succession came "amethyst," then a paler "shade" called "lilac," which was also the name of some flowering bush.

It was nothing less than sublime. And then, wreathed by a sky that was all "orange" and "medium red," the sun itself appeared, blazing through, among the distant mountain peaks before majestically vaulting into view.

It.

Was.

Staggering.

The sun! The fierce, fiery, "yellow" glory of it! It was a splendor that she'd never even imagined could exist.

Heralded by a chorus of birds, it blazed, glowed, commanded, quivering slightly as it was pulled up into the eastern sky, turning everything "golden."

Of all the things Toph Beifong had actually seen over the past four days, _this_ was by far the most breathtaking and splendid, outstripping even the moon.

Assuming she was not only aware of both the term and its meaning, but would then actually consent to be drawn into some tiresome, boring discussion on religious matters, Toph would've described herself as an agnostic. She was totally accepting of the idea of spirits and gods, but like Snoozles, was far less concerned with the esoteric than the day to day, practical aspects of life. No meditation or shrines for her.

All the same, as the sun, the source of all life and warmth and the supreme fire, came up over the peaks and trees, flooding everything with a crazy blend of colors, smiting her borrowed eyes, the awestricken earthbender couldn't stop herself from vacating her stone chair and prostrating her sturdy body in the dry grass.

She stayed that way for several moments, her hands stretched out in front of her, hair draped over her flanks and feeling the grass tickling her bare belly and legs. What a spectacle! No wonder the Fire Nation regarded the sun as a deity.

Nor did she feel any shame or sense of foolishness as she composed herself enough to get back to her feet and brush herself off, blinking as her newfound, squinting vision and reeling mind tried to come to terms with such a grand, glorious orb of a thing.

Tearing her smarting eyes away, she turned in a slow circle, relishing, drunk on and drinking in the whole human-visible spectrum of color, occasionally shutting her eyes for a minute to shut out the sensory overload, retreat back to the familiar domain of what she now knew was blackness and vibrations.

"So," she marveled, "this, this 'color' all around me, of the grass, is 'green.' Guh. Reeennn."

(Yep,) Hawk Boy replied. (With the lack of rain though, it's not at its best. The tree trunks are either gray, or brown, like my back, wings, and head are.)

That comment in turn caused her to peer intently at Tobias, scrutinizing his detailed, brown upper feathers, his cream-colored breast and belly, with its loose band of brown marks, and the flaming copper of his tail plumes which gave the bird its name. And of course, there were his scowling, golden, penetrating bird of prey eyes, the first eyes she'd ever looked into. It left quite an impression.

She shifted her attention back to the sky, watching raptly as the flaming colors of sunrise were gradually replaced by turquoise blue.

Until now, Toph had never been able to even come close to really _comprehending_ the concepts of "beautiful" and "unattractive." She enjoyed being told she "looked" or was lovely or pretty, but when it came down to brass tacks, she couldn't fully grasp it any more than a wild wolf could grasp the concept of an open or closed door.

She'd spent a good deal of time attempting to figure it out. Was the quality of being beautiful like a pleasant smell? Like mouth-wateringly tasty food? Like a sound or a song which relaxed you or made you pumped up, let you know something fun, exciting, was about to happen? Or was it like touching something soft, smooth, wonderfully warm or silky in texture underneath your fingers?

Hard to tell exactly.

But now, as she witnessed her first sunrise, the earthbender thought that she finally knew something of what that word meant.

(Uh Toph? Hello?) Hawk Boy cut in, startling the bender out of her awed reverie. (I honestly hate to interrupt like this, but I think it's time to go back to the cave. I've gotta go out and hunt, and you should probably start getting ready for your day. There'll be plenty of time to take these new sights in on the way.)

She nodded thoughtfully, saying "Yeah. And I think Rachel will be coming sometime this morning too to take me clothes shopping with Olivia."

(If that's so, then you'll be getting to know the mall from front to back, I can guarantee you-or at least every clothing store in it!) he added wryly, good-humoredly, as he sprung up into the air.

The earthbender did a half turn and stretched out her arms, palms down as she _pushed _downward, causing the stone chair to sink back into the pasture with a dry grinding noise. She then lightly _stroked_ with a right to left movement of her left hand, as if she was petting a cat, making the clods of soil and grass fall back into their proper places before leaving.

(Now that is some very nice control.)

"Hey, I've just got the stuff Hawk Boy," she smirked.

During the walk back, sometimes Toph looked through human eyes at the forest's wonders around her, combining the images with her seismic sensing. At other times, when the struggling, the newness, was all too much to take, she bent the eyes back to her normal ones or just simply squeezed her eyelids shut, retreating to the blackness like a suddenly exposed centipede.

As she neared the ravine, her bending picked up a heavy, metal being seated on a boulder near the mouth of her cave, and she checked for a second or two, unpleasant memories of Combustion Man returning to her.

Then she realized it was "just" one of the Chee dog-people. There was a smaller type of actual dog at its feet, casually sniffing the ground.

Blind once more, she called out, "That you Olivia? Mr. King?"

The Chee laughed, getting to his feet and saying in a younger male voice as she jumped into the ravine and approached him, "You truly do have some pretty amazing powers of perception. Actually though, the name's Erek. Dean might've told you that I play the part of his son."

She nodded. "Both Ax and Hawk Boy here have told me a lot of awesome stuff about you. You're like their main undercover agent in this war against the Yeerks, aren't you? Ehhh. Jhunt."

"Well, I wouldn't say **main** agent," Erek modestly replied as the small dog scurried forward to sniff Toph's legs and briefly leap up at her, dancing slightly before then dismissing her and deciding to randomly run around. "All of us Chee play an equally important role at some time or another in finding out what nasty things the Yeerks are up to next. I do tend to be the main one to relay the information back to you Animorphs though."

(Speaking of which,) Tobias asked from his perch in a tree-and so safely out of the hyperactive dog's reach-(what brings you here Erek? Anything going down with the Yeerks right now you've come to tell us about?)

"Not at the moment, no," Erek replied, shaking his head. "Right now they're pretty much focused on politics-Visser Three is _really _working at digging up more dirt against Visser One and her style of handling things, which probably doesn't bode well for her in the long-term. And while it's not exactly the type of thing the Yeerks would go around announcing, we've still been able to get just enough information to at least get the impression that the Andalites have been dealing out a real beating to their forces on several fronts recently."

(Now THAT would be wonderful news if true,) Hawk Boy said hopefully, head-voice laced with satisfaction.

"Sweetness," Toph agreed with a smile as she dug in her left ear.

"Anything that weakens them and distracts their attention away from Earth is definitely a good thing," Erek concurred. "As for here on Earth, it looks like the Yeerks are mostly either engaging in yet another push to recruit more members for the Sharing or working on a couple small-scale science projects that we're still trying to find out more about."

(Well, keep us posted.)

"Always do. Anyway," the Chee said as Toph felt him focus his attention on her, "you must be the extraordinary girl my 'father' told me about, Toph Beifong, the earth shifter...and a master one at that," he amended respectfully. "Pleased to meet you," he told her with a formal bow.

"Yep," she replied, proudly crossing her arms underneath her breasts and smirking. "That's me, best earthbender and first metalbender in the world, and now the universe!"

(Not to mention that she's now become a teacher of that last skill at the age of fourteen,) Hawk Boy added, making her smirk become a pleased grin. He must've noticed, for then he dryly muttered, (I guess that just made me an enabler.)

"A most impressive set of accomplishments," Erek said in admiration.

"Darn right they are."

"Could you demonstrate your earth-shifting ability to me? Preferably not in the way you first received my 'father,' though," he then said with knowing amusement.

"Gladly," Toph replied as she made the power flow out of her hands and pulled up. With a great grinding noise, she rose up two and a half paces (or fifteen of Hawk Boy's 'feet') into the air on a column of stone from the ravine floor.

Erek made a startled sort of yap and jumped back. The dog gave a sharp yelp of its own and ran about twenty paces away from them down the gorge before stopping to stare.

(Congratulations,) Tobias told her in private head-talk. (You've just managed to surprise an android from outer space who's thought he'd seen it all during the past half a million years or so.) To Erek he then said, (Bet you weren't expecting to come across someone who could do _that_ with her mind, huh?)

"No," the android marveled as Toph bent the stone pillar back into the ravine floor, doing it slowly so he could have a nice long look at it. "Definitely nothing like this. 'There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio,'" he said to himself, awestricken.

As she sunk back down to the level of the ground, Toph lightly cocked her head in puzzlement at his phrase, before dismissing it.

"So robot-dog guy, what _are_ you doing over here?"

"Well, Olivia sent me here to tell you she and Rachel are going to pick you up at a place on the main road in a little over an hour to take you shopping at the mall today."

The earthbender's face and shoulders fell at the prospect of another jarring, stomach-battering ride in a "vehicle," and then having to endure some stupid, boring ordeal of trying on clothing.

Sighing, she guessed, "At the end of Cassie's driveway, right? Rye-ite."

"Yes. I'll take you on my back when you're ready and use my cloaking abilities so that no one notices her car pull up there."

"You Chee sure have some pretty cool powers. Anyway, just give me some time to have breakfast and get my hair halfway under control okay?-oh, and if you don't mind, could you braid it for me? I mean, if you know how to."

"I've braided the hair of quite a few girls and women over the past several thousand years," Erek replied good-naturedly. "It's no problem for me. And by all means, go enjoy the most important meal of the day."

(Speaking of which,) Tobias said as Toph sensed the android's dog returning, (I'm going to head off to hunt at my meadow now. But before I do Erek, Ax is going to talk to Mertil this afternoon to see if he'll agree to come here so that Toph can acquire him. If he does, since he can't morph, could you cloak him during the trip? Either way, we'll need you at Gafinilan's place around four.)

"I'll be there Tobias," Erek promised. "And tell Mertil it'll be no problem for me to make him seem like nothing more than a wandering large dog or deer until we get to the woods."

(Will do,) Hawk Boy said, his talons raking the bark as Toph heard him spring up into the air. (See you tonight Toph,) he bid her. (Don't let Rachel dress you in too much girly stuff,) he teased as he flew off.

Laughing, she told him, "Trust me, I'll try not to!"

After opening up the chamber in the wall of the cave and enjoying the rest of her cooked bananas, Toph bent her eyes into Cassie's once more to aid her in getting all the delicious, sugary coconut sauce while Erek put more wood on the fire for her. It gladdened her, knowing that all the Animorphs and their friends were so willing to help her out.

She disposed of the box in the garbage shaft, returned to her blind state, used the latrine, and then went to the stream. She drank, and then took the liberty of rinsing out her armpits, dipping her feet in the cool current, and washing her hands before going supine to soak her hair for a few minutes. For the master earthbender, that was a rarely-touched level of body care.

True to his word, Erek considerately assisted her in squeezing the water out of her hip-length tresses, and then skillfully wove it into a braid while his dog laid nearby, telling her, "I used to style the hair of queens and princesses." He said that so casually, as if such a revelation was no big deal.

She put on her lent moccasins and bracelet of space metal. Then it was time to get going.

"Okay Toph, hop on," he said as he squatted down.

She didn't need to be told twice, and lightly hopped onto the android's back, wrapping her arms and legs around his neck and waist. Once more, her skin only felt the sensation of warm, hairless flesh and clothing as she gripped the canine robot, rather than the smooth metallic feeling that both her bending and logic led her to expect. Very strange.

He stood, turned, and pointed at his dog, telling it, "You stay here until I get back, okay Dante? Stay," he emphasized.

"Named him after a famous, if rather dour, 14th century Italian poet Dean used to know," he added offhandedly.

Then he wheeled around and broke into a run.

"WHOA!" she cried as Erek's metal feet began to pound the dirt.

Antelope Boy was fast on his feet. Eel hounds were fast too. But Erek leapt to the top of the ravine wall in just a single fluid jump with hardly even a jar, and then tore through the woods faster than either of them as Toph clutched his back, going like a streak as leaves and sticks crunched and snapped underfoot, leaping over the occasional log.

At one point she dared to morph Sunshine's eyes again, to see what the world "looked" like in motion.

It was a surprising, chaotic, linear blur of mixing colors, and she had to shut her eyes off after a few strained moments.

Running in a fairly tight semicircle, Erek covered the distance to the end of Cassie's long driveway in less than three minutes. Of course, Toph could already hear the strange _whoosh_ as one of the reeking metal boxes called "vehicles" would whip by as the android got closer, and when he crouched so she could jump down, her braid whipping about, their quaking vibrations half-deafened her.

It only served as an unpleasant reminder of the even worse ones she'd have to look forward to and endure in Olivia's.

But she stayed put, and when her earthbending detected a large vehicle slowing down on their side of the road, coming from the right, the direction of town, Earth's only bender resigned herself to the experience and walked forward.

The SUV pulled into the dirt road for about three, three and a half paces, and then stopped, idling as the passenger side front window opened with a breathy _whirr_, and Rachel's voice greeted her with a, "Hey there Toph. You ready for a day of shopping and a makeover, the best activities in the world?"

"I suppose I am," Toph replied as she extended her right arm, palm up, and formed a partial fist, _pulling_ at the metal handle of the passenger side rear door, which opened wide.

"So that's what metalbending in action looks like. Now that is one seriously cool trick," Rachel approved.

"See you later Erek," Toph told the Chee as she got into the car.

"You too Toph," he replied. "Enjoy yourself at the mall."

"Oh, I'll make sure of that, believe me," Rachel assured him with a laugh as Toph sat down and used her bending to shut the door with a thud. "We'll get her a new wardrobe, a makeover, the works."

"Hey Olivia," she greeted.

"Hey Toph. Need help with your seatbelt?"

"No, I'm good," she assured the Chee as she clicked the buckle in. "Thanks though."

"I've brought some ginger candy to help settle your belly this time," she offered.

"Thanks a lot," the bender said as she accepted two pieces and placed one in her lap as she started to unwrap the other.

"So," Rachel remarked as the car's engine shifted, sending those horrible, jarring jolts up through Toph's feet and spine while it reversed, did a complete half-turn and then started heading toward town, "Marco told me you took a page out of my playbook and acquired a grizzly at the animal sanctuary yesterday. Apparently yours didn't go as smoothly as mine."

The candy was sticky, and it took some effort for Toph to disengage it from the wrapper, saying as she did so, "Yeah, her brother made it good and clear that I wasn't welcome. Did a number on one of my legs, and I had to introduce him to some earthbending to get outta there."

"Anyone see you?" Tough Girl asked in sudden concern as Toph put the candy in her mouth.

"I was already masking her at the time, so the most anyone would've noticed was a sharp shout they couldn't have pinned down," Yzark assured her.

"That's good," Rachel exhaled in relief.

The ginger candy had a sharp, bitter, spicy taste as Toph chewed.

Already, a vague, fuzzy nexus of pain began to develop somewhere in her frontal lobe from the shaking, like a morning headache, the type you get from putting pressure on your neck while sleeping.

"So," Tough Girl said thoughtfully then, "from what Tobias told me, the Ellimist"-and she almost hissed the word with a shocking vehemence-"sent you here to pretty much watch my back while kicking butt along the way."

Toph nodded. "Yeah, I remember him telling me when we first met that you'd need my help to save you at some time in the future, either from being killed in battle or being made into a Controller I guess-but I can't remember when or how that'll happen!" she shrugged in helpless frustration. "It's like he made me totally forget those details Tough Girl. I mean, what exactly am I supposed to do for him, randomly follow you around until a Yeerk tries to infest or kill you?" She couldn't help but laugh slightly at the preposterous idea.

Rachel laughed too. "Well, one thing I _do_ know is that there's no way in fiery **hell **any Yeerk is ever getting inside my skull," she defiantly vowed. "As for you not remembering, that's all too like that manipulative jerk," she snarled, "so don't lose any sleep over it."

Toph was shocked by the older girl's words. The Ellimist manipulative? A jerk? Huh? Were they talking about the same spirit-type guy here?

"What?!" she cried in surprise. "How can you say he's a jerk Tough Girl? He seemed more like a sweet old grandpa or uncle to me-if a crazy powerful one," she added.

"He tends to come across that way," Rachel agreed, "and I'll admit he's never done anything to harm us or _directly_ force us to do something we didn't want to do."

"He certainly didn't force _me_ to come to your...your world," Toph pointed out. Good Oma, were her temples throbbing.

"I never said he had," Rachel replied. "And don't get me wrong, we're all glad to have you here and on our side. Still, make no mistake, that guy is no friend of ours-and you'll end up wishing he'd never gotten you involved in his business."

"Why?" Toph asked, her aching forehead furrowing slightly. "You mean because I'll get attached to you guys and then be sad about having to leave you forever?" she guessed. "I'm certainly not having second thoughts about being able to bodybend, fly,-and _see_!" she added happily, outstretching her hands.

"And we're all very glad for you about that, believe me," Rachel acknowledged. "But what I mean is the Ellimist is a complete cheat, who tells us one thing and then does another," she growled. "He shows up, jerks us around, plays games with us whenever it suits him, and just like with you, refuses to tell us anything but the bare minimum."

Her voice was one of conviction and experience, and it made an uncertain, suspicious, vaguely resentful feeling grow inside Toph's aching head. Had she unwittingly allowed the Ellimist to manipulate her, play her for a fool?

Blind eyes narrowing, she asked, "A cheat? How so?"

"Just look no further than Tobias," Tough Girl droned in disgust. "So to speak," she added, suddenly a bit contrite.

"Oh yeah, I remember him telling me about that," Toph said coolly, recalling his summary of how, during a mission to keep the first known couple of free Hork-Bajir one step ahead of the Yeerks and lead them to a safe valley, the Ellimist had appeared to Hawk Boy and offered him what _seemed_ like the chance to become human again as a reward for his assistance. The possibility of that miracle had made both him and Rachel wild with a guarded jubilation.

Turns out, they were right to be guarded, for when Hawk Boy _did_ get his "reward" while in a serious predicament, crippled and soon to be eaten, the Ellimist "merely" gave him his ability to morph back.

"That was definitely a pretty uncool trick he played," the bender agreed. "Still, Hawk Boy somehow got to acquire his human form in the end, didn't he?"

"Yeah, and that's a wonderful thing," Tough Girl granted. "But the fact remains," she added in venomous annoyance, "that the Ellimist still told a big fat _lie_-and he uses people Toph, all while he's going on about how he's supposedly not interfering. So watch your butt."

Naturally, Toph did not like that idea. At all. Still, she was here at this place, at this time, and on this world, so what could she really do about it, she thought as she leaned back and rubbed her temples with a resigned sigh.

"Well, like you said, I'm already here," she commented. "And even if the guy is playing around with me, he still felt and sounds way nicer than his enemy, this Crayak guy he told me about."

"Oh Jesus yes," Rachel thinly, heartily agreed and admitted. Toph heard the slight quake in her voice and heard her shift uncomfortably in the front seat. And she knew.

Becoming more alert, she asked in mild surprise, "You've _seen_ him?!" The Ellimist's words came back to her:_ To be in his presence would likely tear your mind apart with fear, earthbender._

"Once," Tough Girl said tensely. "We all did, plus Erek, and that was one time too many."

"Did he try to hurt you at all?"

"No, but he sure was terrifying beyond belief-and the complete essence of evil," Rachel grimly informed her. "But enough about Mr. Red-eye," she dismissed. "Tobias and Ax making a good impression on you at your new home?"

"Oh, you bet," Toph said warmly. "For one thing, they're great company. One of them has been staying with me in the cave every night since I arrived here, so I never feel lonely, and I really appreciate that. It's sure a lot better than only having the fire and wind there to remind me how far from home and out of place I am," she sighed.

After a moment, Rachel gently told her, "Don't let it get to you Toph. Gosh knows we Animorphs may have our differences-I mean, just look at Marco and I behave towards each other-but we're always there for each other when it counts...and for you too, if you ever need anything. Geez, that sounded so sappy," she said to herself.

Toph laughed, even though the corners of her eyes felt suddenly tight and hot. "Maybe it is Tough Girl, but I liked hearing that all the same."

"Anyway though," the bender went on, "Hawk Boy and Antelope Boy seem to understand me so well for just that reason, because we're the odd ones out in more ways than one. Just as well, they respect me, and are always ready to help me when I need it."

"Yeah, Tobias and Ax are great guys," Rachel agreed. "Ever since Tobias got trapped as a hawk," she went on reflectively, "I've been more than willing to provide him with whatever he needs you know, from vitamin drops to a dresser drawer to sleep in if it's a stormy night out. It's pretty awesome to know that now both he and Ax are helping take care of someone too, namely you."

"Don't forget your friendly neighborhood android," Yzark half-jokingly chimed in.

"We wouldn't Yzark," Rachel said.

"Yeah, you're being nice enough to take me out to buy some outfits after all," Toph grinned. "But yeah, Hawk Boy's especially been a big help," she went on. "I mean, he taught me how to fly in owl morph last night, morphs human to make sure my fire stays going, helps me with cleaning my hair and scratching itches I can't reach-"

"What!" Rachel barked, her tone suddenly becoming sharp and dangerous as she half-whirled in the front seat.

Too late, Toph realized the stupid mistake she'd just made, and despite the fact that she knew she could easily take Tough Girl in a fight with her bending any day, she still cringed under the lash of the other girl's furious words. "Don't tell me that you're actually trying to _get involved_ with MY Tobias, you lit-"

"I didn't mean it to sound that way!" the bender protested, holding up her hands. "Trust me Tough Girl," Toph desperately assured her, "what Hawk Boy and I have between us at the cave is strictly the helpful, friendly kind of guy-girl relationship. Besides, birds don't exactly have much appeal for me as romantic partners," she added dryly, warily.

"That's good to know," Rachel replied with relief, her tone becoming less harsh as Toph decided maybe she could relax a few notches now. "Sorry if I sounded a bit snippy and suspicious there. You can understand though, right?"

"Oh yeah," Toph agreed. "I can relate. Seriously, there's nothing worse than some slut who steals another girl's boyfriend. Sluh-tuh." Her mind flashed unfairly to Fan Girl, and how that Kyoshi Island _homewrecker_ had snatched Meathead away from her.

No. No, she shouldn't think that way, she chastised herself. She owed Fan Girl her very life for Tu Gong's sake, and they were supposed to be friends! Besides, Snoozles had already known Suki before meeting her, so it made sense he'd have a stronger connection with her, right? Right?

"Tell me about it," Rachel scoffed half-contemptuously, oblivious to Toph's internal debate. "Makes you wanna yank some hair and administer a major beatdown."

Toph laughed again. "Yep, I think we have a lot in common Tough Girl. And speaking of beatdowns, before we get to this mall place and can still talk safely, I'd be interested to hear about some you've given to the Yeerks."

"Couldn't have picked a better subject," Rachel replied gleefully, proudly. "I'm also pretty eager to hear about some of your own adventures in butt-kicking too."

"My pleasure," Toph said, more than happy to oblige. "But you can start with an example of your awesomeness first."

"All right," Rachel agreed. "Early on, there was this one battle where, probably against our better sense, we decided to destroy this machine called a Kandrona emitter that the Yeerks need to survive off their world. Anyway, thanks to a subtle tip from the Ellimist, we figured out that it was located at the top of this building called the EGS tower. We flew there, and then I morphed into a grizzly..."

After Tough Girl was done with her awesome account of how she annihilated the Hork-Bajir guards and then morphed elephant to push the emitter _out the freaking window_ to oh so gloriously be smashed on the sidewalk far below, Toph started in then with how she fought the Dai Li underneath Lake Laogai, holding her own against the elite secret police force.

While she was finishing, Rachel listening with admiration and Toph felt, some envy, Olivia announced as they made yet another stomach-yanking turn, "Sorry to cut in, but we're here at the mall."

"Oh goody."

"You're gonna learn to love it here," Rachel confidently assured the bender.

"If you say so," Toph replied flatly as Olivia found a place to park and turned in.

As always, the earthbender was eager to get back in touch with the element she controlled, even if it would be a manmade, manipulated version.

So it must've been quite a surprise for Tough Girl and Yzark alike when after leaving the SUV and standing up straight, getting back in tune with her element, Toph's first act was to abruptly quail, standing rigid and giving a short, knife-edged gasp of shock as her blind jade eyes expanded, before she then actually scrambled _back into_ the car, trembling.

"What's wrong Zhenzhu?" the taken aback android asked her.

"Yeah, what's got you so spooked?" Rachel said. "Is it all the people and how weird this place is?"

"Let's-let's ju-just-get away from here," Toph said miserably, hunched and sniffling from the filthy air that hit her nostrils like a punch. "I can feel it."

"Feel what?" Olivia asked.

But Rachel had figured it out.

"The Yeerks. Duh," she said to herself. "She can sense the Yeerk Pool underneath town with her vibration vision. I'd freak too."

Toph nodded, still shaken. "I had no idea it was so _enormous_! Nohr. Muss."

"Yeah, it's pretty huge," Rachel agreed. "I still wonder where they put all that dug-out dirt and stone without anybody noticing. Up in the mountains maybe."

"Or maybe they dumped it in the ocean," Olivia suggested.

"That could be too."

The earthbender was still uncharacteristically frazzled and stunned, her heart racing. Not only had the size of their enemy's base been disturbing enough, but what had really pierced her, like a frost-covered sword, had been the sounds transmitted to her soles.

The screams. Screams of men and women and children, scores of them. These weren't the playful or acting type. They were the real deal, stark cries of soul-tearing despair, rage, helplessness, mental agony. Some were deep, bass shouts and curses of rage. Others were tinny, sobbing pleas for mercy.

Mingled with them were bizarre, guttural rumbling bellows of fury, whining, keening squeals, pained howls, and deep, low growls that the bender presumed were produced by the strange bladed aliens called Hork-Bajir.

It made her feel ill, and her body shake. She hadn't been in any real danger herself, and was no wuss-but she still couldn't help shaking, her shoulders hunched.

Nor could she keep the nervous flutter out of her voice as she said, "I had no clue. Kuh-lu. You Animorphs are right about the pool being a horrible place, about how evil the Yeerks are. That-that was like listening to sinners being tortured in Hell for me. Tore-tchur-ed. Chur-duh."

"Couldn't have picked a better description," Rachel dismally agreed. "That screaming and crying will be seared into my mind forever."

Toph nodded weakly. "I don't want to have to hear that through my feet again, so I'm going to, uh, make a few changes," she decided, bending just her eyes and bottom portions of her feet into Cassie's.

"So you have a talent for it as well. Way cool," Tough Girl commented as the bender made a quarter turn and hesitantly placed her moccasins on the asphalt, a blackness speckled with gray.

This time, she didn't perceive any screams from the Yeerk captives.

"Much better," she sighed in relief.

"I'd imagine so," Yzark replied. "You okay now, I hope?"

"Yeah, I'm getting calmed down," Toph said as she stood up, brushing her bangs back behind her ears to see better.

"Just curious, how detailed is your vibration vision ability exactly?" Rachel asked thoughtfully as they began to walk. "I mean, you could detect that the Yeerk pool was gigantic and the screaming of the free hos-Sorry," she added, seeing the earthbender suddenly tense.

"It's okay. Anyway, I mostly use my bending to sense what's around me, not below. Still, voice vibrations from below the ground can reach me through stone, and I can feel about several dozen paces under the surface, which is enough to get a sense of the Pool's size. I could also feel that there are three different stairways that lead into it from the mall," she added.

"Great information to know," Rachel replied. "We already knew there were two stairways to there from here, but not that there was a third one."

It pleased Toph to know she'd made a contribution to the cause already as the trio walked along toward the mall entrance, the bender occasionally sneezing from the particulate matter in the air.

Through her new, working human eyes, everything was a marvel, a whole new wonderful, incredible world of light and shape and shadow and depth and glorious color! She often stopped to point at one of the "cars" parked in their spaces, designated by brilliant white lines, or slowly cruising through the lot, asking Tough Girl or Olivia what color it was called.

And when they entered the mall, greeted by that unnatural blast of machine-chilled air and all sorts of exotic odors-the weirdness of it all, the sheer sensory overload, just blew her away. There were colored lights, people's clothing, facial features, signs, storefronts, plants, jewelry, and so many other things to look at, take in.

She also felt the apprehension and doubtful confusion of many a traveler who has unexpectedly stumbled across some unimagined, awe-inspiring place, where they're just paltry fellows of no relevance. When, disguised as a pilgrim, the Belgian explorer Alexandra David-Neel arrived at last in the forbidden city of Lhasa in 1924, she must have realized with a shock, surely it must have sunk in, the staggering fact that this magnificent, holy city had existed for longer than she'd been alive, than many of the great European powers had existed-and she'd been completely naïve about it! That this place neither wanted nor needed anything from her, from Brussels, from Europe? That it was full of wonders beyond her understanding? That her arrival was completely irrelevant to its citizens?

We know she felt these emotions, and so did Toph in this sophisticated marketplace, unsure of what she'd encounter next. There's nothing that takes the wind out of your sails, makes you feel awfully small, like finding yourself in some strange and marvelous place where none of the locals even pause to notice you're gawking.

What humans had made on this "Earth," was a bewildering, delightful world, an enormous system of thought and knowledge and feats and wonders and accomplishments. And to think, on this planet where she was now a race of one, these strangers so like her had done it all _not_ with bending, but solely with human hands and subtle, complex machinery, transporting it in their vehicles, ships, and trains!

Part of her understood that all these things which astonished her were things both Yzark and Tough Girl took for granted, that her gawking and amazement had to make her look seriously awkward, no better than some catfish-bass brained hick back home. She frequently blushed and shifted in place from this realization, but still couldn't stop herself from commenting on all these wonderful things, saying how cool and awesome they were.

As for Olivia and Rachel, they smiled at her almost continuously, but they didn't seem to be patronizing, mocking ones, thank Oma and Shu: they seemed truly delighted and pleased by the pleasure she took in new discoveries and sensations. That was another unexpected thing about being able to see: all the facial expressions you had to deal with whenever speaking to someone. There was constant twitching and lowering and raising and tensing of the eyebrows and lips and eyes and cheeks and ears. It was very distracting.

At one point, while the earthbender regarded a glowing creation called a "neon sign," she heard Rachel say offhandedly to the android, "You know, she reminds me of Jack Skellington when he discovered Christmas Town."

"Me too. 'What's this/what's this/ there's color everywhere...'" Yzark sang briefly.

As for the other music she heard playing from various "machines," in the mall, Toph soon concluded she found the majority of it to be teeth-grindingly irritating, horrible and jarring. She decided she liked pieces that had a deep bass quality to them though, even if they tended to be deafeningly loud to her sensitive ears.

Some of these newly seen and experienced things were just plain fun. The moving "black" stairs called "escalators" for example. The motion of the devices almost reminded her of casually earthsurfing up a hill, a giddy, exciting sensation as she felt the metal railing slide by underneath her hand.

In all honesty, she could've happily ridden up and down on the moving stairways all day long (and according to Rachel, Ax was the exact same way about them) and it was always such a disappointment to reach the end and have to resume walking. At least the floors were made of decorative stone though.

And there were some things that she accepted with a strange aplomb. The magical boxes called "TVs" for instance. While the colors and motion of the images on screen were intrinsically interesting, it never really occurred to her that there was anything weird about this. The concept eluded her, just like how simple tribal villagers in New Guinea or the Amazon may not be particularly astonished by their first sight of a floatplane or video camera: it is outside their comprehension.

And indeed, Toph more or less took everything as it came with a cool set of nerves.

Only once was there a real problem. As all three of them approached and entered the mall's central plaza, Toph came to a sudden halt and looked around at all the shoppers, all the colors, the mall cops, smelt the unfamiliar mixture of natural and chemical odors, hearing the crazy music and sounds. It was too much to take in, and the unsettling realization of how vulnerable and naïve she really was in this new world, her bending skills notwithstanding, sure didn't help.

She stiffened, and lowered her head, face tightening.

Olivia led her by the hand to a nearby empty, out-of-the-way bench, where Toph simply closed her eyes, morphed them back to her true ones, and sat, hunched and trembling, lightly hugging herself for a few minutes as her companions sat on either side of her.

"What's wrong?" the android asked softly. "You still upset about sensing the Yeerk Pool?"

Toph shook her head.

"Overload," she told them at last, her voice shaky as she took a ragged breath. "Load-duh. So many new sights...new sounds...the brilliant colors...the crazy music...so much weird stuff all at once. It's nothing like I'm used to. Sorry if I seem like a weirdo. Wheer. Dough."

"Hey it's okay," Rachel assured her. "All things considered, you're handling it pretty well."

"I'm used to a world where people can-well, you know-where most everything is simpler, made by hand, where the air is so much cleaner and I know lots of people and they know about me. Speaking of which, is anyone staring at me while I'm wigging out?"

After raising her head, Yzark told her, "No one's noticed anything Zhenzhu. There's nothing to stare at."

"And with all the Asian immigrants we get here in California, it's hardly like you're the first person around here to suffer culture shock in a public place," Rachel added. "People around here don't know you from anyone else who's 'fresh off the boat.'"

Toph gave a light laugh, which improved her mood, and she began to gradually relax.

"I'm okay now," she told them after a few moments as she found her innate confidence again and got back to her feet, morphing her eyeballs again to see. "Let's go."

They hit all the mall's big clothing stores-which according to her friends were named The Gap, Nordstrom's, Sears, Junior Miss-where as predicted, Rachel took charge of the show, determining what would fit and look best on the earthbender, leading her into a succession of dressing rooms.

Occasionally Toph paused to idly sniff the air and give her opinion on the prevailing odor.

So not surprisingly, when Rachel brought her into her first dressing room at Sears to try on some shirts, the bender gave a thoughtful sniff as she stood there in her moccasins.

"What's up?" Tough Girl asked in idle curiosity as she put the plastic hangers on a metal rail on the wall.

"Nothing. It's just that you Earth-people sure have a different type of smell to you."

"Oh, we don't smell," Rachel playfully denied.

"Hey, I'm not saying it's a nasty type of smell," Toph assured her, throwing up her hands. "It's somewhat like freshly brewed beer, the smell of a musk deer buck, and a dog all mixed together. Kind of nice, actually."

"Do we have a different smell because we can't bend?" Rachel softly inquired as she chose a shirt. "Ah, this should look good on you."

"No," Toph replied, shaking her head. "Nonbenders where I come from _do_ tend to have a different smell to them, but not on the same level you guys do. Just further proof of how we're totally different beings, I guess," she shrugged.

"Still, you're close enough to wear our clothing," Rachel commented. "Now here, try this gold shirt on."

"All right," the earthbender sighed as she took it and began to pull it over her head.

Whenever she grumbled or complained about the tedium and silliness of having to try on and model so many darn clothes, Rachel would simply tell her, "We'll be done soon, I promise," or "Just hang in there Zhenzhu," or "Hey, no one said looking fashionable was easy...but it sure is important," or even an exasperated "Zhenzhu, please. Try not to turn into Cassie on me."

By the time it was all over, Toph found herself in possession of two plastic-packaged six packs of girl's underwear, a couple two-packs of bras that Rachel had determined were a size called "B-cup," two more sports bras, a dozen pairs of socks-six white, six dark-eight different tank tops, six regular shirts, four blouses, two nighties, two jumpers, two pairs of khaki jeans, two pairs of denim jeans, five pairs of knee-length shorts, three pairs of immodestly high hip shorts, two pairs of sweatpants, a turtleneck shirt, a turtleneck sweater, three regular sweaters, the same number of sweatshirts, a square cut dark purple leotard, and a stylish sun hat.

At a store whose sign Rachel claimed read "Payless Shoe Source," they talked her into accepting some footwear that her bending could be transmitted reasonably well through. Sandals, flip-flops, leather shoes.

At Sears, Olivia also purchased some bathroom products for Toph. A bottle of "No More Tears" shampoo. A bottle of lavender-scented bubble bath. Two bars of Ivory soap, one for the house, one for the cave. Two large combs and a boar-bristle brush for her hair. Fingernail and toenail clippers. A pack of ponytail holders and two packs of these clips called barrettes. Two boxes of something for your cycles Tough Girl called Kotex Maxi-pads-she'd really have to ask Hawk Boy or Sunshine to teach her how to read some time now that she could see, Toph decided-one for each dwelling place. A bar of something called Dove deodorant.

All of these hygiene and personal care products were pointless, ridiculous, way-too-complicated vanity as far as the earthbender was concerned.

Still, she guessed it was nice of Tough Girl and Yzark to want her to look and smell her best, be presentable in their society. And after all, one of the many things Toph had learnt during her time traveling with the Gaang was that it was important to at least _attempt_ to respect the values and ways of other cultures, even if they made no sense to her or were stupid.

Most of all, in a world that was full of hidden, pitiless enemies, she didn't think it would be a wise idea to stand out more than she could help.

All the shopping, walking, trying on clothes, trying to come to grips with color vision and the complete nuthouse that was the mall was understandably draining.

So midway through the shopping spree, Toph asked as they walked by a Samsung store, all three of them loaded with bags, "You know, I could really use a good lunch right about now. Could we stop somewhere to eat?"

"That does sound good," Rachel agreed. "While there may an expression about shopping till you drop, I'm not _that_ masochistic. Come on Zhenzhu, the food court's this way."

With her heightened senses, Toph smelt the food court long before she saw-saw!-it.

The scents were intoxicating, a mélange of grease and spices and cooked starch and sugar and smoky smells and sharp acids like vinegar and pickles. It was enough to get her saliva and digestive juices flowing immediately.

"Anything in particular that you'd like?" the android asked as they entered the food court with its long tables and chairs and kiosks.

"I really don't know," Toph shrugged, straining slightly against the weight of the bags she held. "Guess I'll just follow my nose."

"Good a plan as any," Rachel supplied. She then added, "A word of warning though Zhenzhu. Remember though, no matter how much you might enjoy a brand new flavor, try not to get carried away or act weird. We already have enough problems with Ax," she whispered.

Part of Toph bristled at the other girl's faintly paternalistic words. Still, she had a point, and the bender calmly said "I'll do my best."

As usual in this Earth society, plastic seemed to be involved in everything, starting with the tray Toph was given. With the other girl to guide her, and with no need to eat herself as a robot, Olivia left them then to bring the bags of clothing she'd bought so far back to the car.

Using her sense of smell and some advice from Rachel, she chose a large wedge of a pleasantly greasy, meaty-smelling food called "sausage pizza," from a vendor appropriately named "Pizza Palace."

Next up on her tray was a medium "caramel mocha," from a place called "Starbucks."

Last, but certainly not least, she couldn't resist the alluring scent of one of the signature rolls that gave "Cinnabon," its name.

After Rachel had bought herself a BLT sandwich, a chicken salad with ranch dressing, and steaming green tea in one of those waxed paper cups-and the sight of the steam enchanted her-both girls sat down at one of the long tables. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the chair Toph settled into was also mainly made of plastic, formed just right to accommodate the butt. How ingenious!

After making herself comfortable, it was time to eat.

She went for the pizza first.

Still not fully used to the concept of hand-eye coordination, she somewhat clumsily picked up the wedge and brought it to her mouth, quickly figuring out that it was best to hold the widest part of the wedge with one hand while supporting the rest of it with the other.

Savoring the smell, she took a careful bite and chewed.

The texture was pleasantly springy, yielding and of course, oily. But the flavor! Oh Shu, the wonderful flavor of this pizza food!

"Wow, this is good stuff!" she exclaimed.

"Can't disagree with that," Rachel said. "Pizza rules, and Lord knows my sisters would be more than happy to live on a strict _diet_ of pizza if they could," she commented knowingly, a small smile forming on her lips.

"What is this new spicy sauce I'm tasting? And the greasy stuff? That's really good."

"Pizza sauce," Rachel said as she took a bite out of her sandwich. "It's tomato sauce with a bunch of spices added, and the greasy stuff is cheese."

"Cchhhiiisssuuh," Toph repeated, enjoying the sound of the word. She ate a few more bites, and then decided to temporarily leave the pizza in favor of the wonderful-smelling Cinnabon.

She peeled off a portion of the sticky, oozing pastry as Rachel intently watched, and then consumed it.

The taste! It was like being hit in the chest by a boulder, like everything had suddenly frozen. Her tongue was flooded, overpowered by a rush of cinnamon, amazingly sweet frosting, and sweet, light bread. The sensation was heavenly, a nearly sexual bolt of ecstasy.

She actually moaned in pleasure, closing her eyes and tilting her head back.

There was just her and the Cinnabon pastry, and nothing else as she tore off another piece and ate that, reveling in the taste and sucking her fingers.

She decided to take another bite out of her pizza wedge, and then follow that up with another segment of roll, so that she could enjoy both flavors together! It was an awesome taste combo, and the bender slowly chewed the large mouthful, eyes closed in delight.

Then, suddenly, her reverie was broken by someone saying in irritation from the table behind them, in a voice that was low-key but still clearly intended to be heard at the same time, "Jesus, why, _why_, do these frigging _ching chongs_ have to chew with their mouths open and so loudly all the time?"

"Yeah," someone else growled. "If the gooks can't behave like civilized people, maybe they should just go back home."

Toph had no idea what the terms "ching chong," and "gook," meant of course, but she could still tell from the tone and context that they were insults. Anger spiked within her, sharp and burning, as she swallowed, shoved her chair backward, and whipped around, extending her right foot as she prepared to _push_, shove their chairs out from underneath them at a nice fast speed with her earthbending.

And she didn't care if other people noticed or freaked out. She was so going to make these buttholes pay for their disrespect towards Toph Beifong!

Inside her head, The Blink came on.

* * *

**Uh-oh, it looks like in a moment of careless rage, Toph just may cause a scene and give the game away! While writing down the racial slurs both guys called her wasn't something I liked doing, it's just a sad fact that people like them exist in this world, whether we like it or not.**

**The way Toph sometimes repeats or enunciates her words is NOT an attempt to make her seem like a clone of Ax. Unlike the Andalite, she's far more used to the concept of making sounds with her mouth. **

**So when she repeats an English word, she's doing so simply to pronounce it better, get used to the vowels and syllabules. Indeed, I originally planned to have Toph have noticeable difficulty with her R's and L's-but scrapped that because although you often really _do_ see this among people from Asia who speak English as a 2nd language, I thought it would be uncomfortably stereotypical as well.**

**More to come next chapter, including a catalyst for some action!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Once more, I just want to thank everyone who's left reviews. You're the best!**

* * *

But then Rachel, with her gymnast's agility, cried "No Zhenzhu, don't!" as she kicked Toph's right foot out from underneath her, causing the bender to stumble and briefly windmill before regaining her balance.

Furious, Toph glared up at Tough Girl, snapping, "Why did you-"

"They're so not worth it," Rachel explained. "Besides, I'll handle this," she coolly added as she turned on her heels and stalked up to the table where the two guys were sitting with Toph walking alongside.

Since they were on the second floor of the mall, Toph had bent her feet back into their natural state. With her seismic sensing "back on," she could now tell through a combination of it and vision that the guys who'd insulted her were either in their late teens or early twenties.

One was fairly fat, with shoulder-length "dark brown" hair and "blue" eyes, wearing a black "T-shirt" with some type of strange design on it and a pair of "tan" shorts. The other was of average height, had slightly darker skin, "brown" eyes, short "pale brown" hair that was swept forward, wore "blue jeans" and a "pale blue" T-shirt with some type of lettering on it-which of course, Toph couldn't read-and the visual improvement devices called "glasses."

And when the two jerks realized who was coming toward them, who was accompanying the girl who they'd thought they could get away with insulting, both their eyes became distinctly wide. Toph could also feel their heartbeats immediately speed up and their bodies tense.

"Um, hi Rachel, how you doing?" the fatter guy asked, grinning in an attempt to appease her.

"Didn't expect to see you here at the food court," his buddy added. "I mean, don't you usually stick to the sh-"

"Shut the hell up Max," Rachel snapped, looming over them from the other side of the table. "And that goes for you too, Edward," she added darkly, turning to glare at the fatter of the two guys.

"So," she went on, "apparently you two _losers_ think it's cool to insult my new friend here and make racist remarks around her," as she gestured to Toph, who smirked back at them.

"Um, she's your friend? We-we had no idea Rachel," Edward whined in dawning horror as he gave Max a quick, desperate, Oh-no-we're-in-a-world-of-trouble-now look.

The earthbender joined her in giving them a steely stare as she added, "Yeah, apparently you two need to be taught a lesson by _these_," indicating her fist and smacking it into her other hand for emphasis.

"Nah, I can think of an even _better_ punishment for these intolerant losers than that," Rachel volunteered.

"Like what?" Max asked nervously as Edward began to stand up, clearly in some pathetic attempt to make himself seem more intimidating than the small-minded nothing he really was.

"Nuh-uh. No way pal," Toph snapped as she angrily pointed at him. "You sit your butt down when Tough Girl and I talk to you." Edward quickly obliged.

"Well, for starters," Rachel coolly told Max as her gaze raked both guys, "my mother happens to be an experienced lawyer."

"Like that's supposed to mean anything to us?" Max scoffed.

"Considering that you're both over 18 and have just committed racial harassment under state law, it damn well should," she spat as Toph laughed inwardly at their consternation.

Their eyes widened with fear as Edward gulped, "But-but...our academic careers!"

"You wouldn't!" Max gulped in horror.

"Would you like to bet your reputation and already not-so-clean records on that?" Tough Girl growled. "And my mom is no fan of racist _punks_ like you two."

"No! We're really sorry!" Edward said pleadingly.

"We didn't mean it, really," Max babbled.

Hoping she was doing it correctly, Toph had to roll her eyes at that. _Yeah right, and I'm Queen of Omashu._ Not that that would exactly be an unwelcome thing though!

"Hmmm," Rachel contemplated, turning to give Toph a loaded, calculating look, one deliberately designed to make the jerks sweat as she asked, "What do you think Zhenzhu? Should we report these lowlifes or just have them apologize to you and let it go?"

The bender cocked her head and placed her left pointer finger against the same side of her jaw, unable to keep from faintly smiling at the feeling of both young men's heartbeats beating wildly with fear and squirming in their chairs.

"Well, I think they deserve to have the stuffing beat out of them myself," she said stonily. "But just this once I think I'll be fine with having them apologize."

Immediately, she felt and saw the bodies of both guys sag with relief.

"Thank you," Max sighed.

"You heard my friend," Rachel replied as she jerked her thumb at Toph. "Apologize to her for your bigoted, moronic remarks."

Focusing their attention on her, Edward lowered his head and sighed, "I'm sorry I said offensive things about you like that. I'll never do it again."

"Yeah, I apologize too," Max added. "I was just-ah, cranky and not thinking when I said that. You Asians are actually pretty cool people, seriously."

Toph knew Max was lying through his teeth of course, and compressed her lips in anger, but managed to hold her tongue.

"Well, I'll accept your apologies this time," she graciously informed them. Turning more severe then, she added, "But if you ever call me something like ching chong again..." She grimly cracked her knuckles.

"Come on Zhenzhu, let's go somewhere else to eat," Rachel huffed disdainfully as she turned away and headed back to their table to pick up her tray.

And then their attention was caught by nearby laughter and light applause from another table to their right, approving and delighted.

Turning, Toph, with her eyes currently closed to tune out the stimulation, felt the excited yet somewhat shy heartbeats of two young people, one a guy, one a girl, sitting next to each other but otherwise alone.

"Now that was nicely done you two," the boy snickered in approval. "Had them shaking in their shoes."

"Yeah, both of you were totally controlling them," the girl said in wonder. "I wish I could find the guts to deal with people like that when they make fun of me," she added softly.

"Why don't you two come sit with us?" the boy offered. Like his sister-and like Toph herself for that matter-he had a noticeable accent to his English. It sparked the bender's curiosity, and she certainly enjoyed the fact that they'd praised her (and yes, Tough Girl,) for dominating those two losers.

So she replied, "Sounds good to me," as she strode forward and took a seat on the other side of the table from the girl. Rachel said "Okay," and did the same.

"So, you're Rachel right?" the boy asked. From his voice and build, he seemed to be about Toph's age, and just slightly taller.

Rachel was a bit surprised. "Uh, how do you know me? I haven't exactly seen you before."

"That's because we're new faces at school, and a bit young to be in your classes," he replied in faint amusement. "As for how I know your name...well, you pick up on who the popular kids are pretty quick at a new school."

"Too bad they can't be bothered to pick up on ours," the girl muttered morosely. "Still loads better than when they go pick _on_ us though."

"Well, let's change that then," Rachel civilly proposed. "First, what are your guy's names?"

"I'm Daniel," the boy said. "Daniel Thongchai."

"And I'm his twin sister, Mindy," the girl added.

"Huh, my dad's name is Daniel," Rachel mentioned.

"Cool. It's a great name," Daniel said smoothly.

"Nice to meet you," Toph smiled as she gave a brief bob of her head in acknowledgement. "My name's Zhenzhu."

"Same goes for me," Rachel added as she took a bite of her sandwich. "That it's nice to meet you I mean."

"Zhenzhu," Mindy said thoughtfully. "Are you Chinese then?"

_Earth Kingdom_, Toph thought. But she nodded, saying "Yep, I'm from Nanjing."

Thinking of their accents, she then asked, "Are you two from China too?"

Daniel laughed lightly before saying, "Nah, we're Thai, although we have some Chinese blood in us from our dad's mom."

He must've noticed her confused expression, for he then added, "That means we're from Thailand."

"Zhenzhu lived at an orphanage for most of her life before being adopted," Rachel cut in, "so there's a lot she doesn't know about the world yet."

Mindy said "I see," while Daniel just grunted in understanding.

"Do you speak any...Mandarin?" Toph asked as she took another bite of her pizza, prodding her mind to find the proper word.

"Yi xie," Mindy playfully replied as Toph once again closed her eyes.

"Is there something wrong?" Daniel asked.

"Zhenzhu has photophobia," Rachel "explained," "so sometimes she just has to close her eyes because the light hurts them too much."

"That can't be fun," Mindy replied.

"I manage," Toph shrugged.

"Uh, so you two are new here, huh?" the bender went on. "I am too."

"That we are," Daniel confirmed. "We moved here only about three weeks ago with our Mom and younger brother from Pattaya. Our Dad's going to come over later."

"I wish he was here already," Mindy said softly.

"Yeah, I miss him too," her brother sighed. "But he'll be here with us once he gets everything sorted out."

Toph's strange paper cup of "coffee" had cooled to the point where she felt she could safely drink from it. Closing her eyes again, she slowly ran her thumb around the lip of the lid. When she found what seemed like a hole, she glanced up at Rachel, asking "I guess this is the part where I drink out of?"

"Yeah. Just be careful so your tongue doesn't get burnt."

"Looks like we aren't the only ones experiencing culture shock," Daniel muttered to his sister as Toph took an experimental sip.

Amazing! The taste was rich, earthy, wonderfully sweet and smooth. But it wasn't just these new flavors that made the earthbender's body jerk and her eyes widen in surprise.

Toph enjoyed tea, and was quite familiar with the pleasant buzz it gave you, which could be a bit strong sometimes depending on the variety. But that didn't compare to the electric _jolt_ this exotic "coffee" drink gave her!

"Whoa!" she cried. "This coffee stuff has a major kick to it!"

Daniel chuckled knowingly. "A real jolt to the system, huh?"

"Oh yeah," Toph agreed as her entire nervous system seemed to break into song, eagerly taking another swallow. "Wow, now that's one nice beverage! I thought tea was great, but this is like wings-like freedom in a cup!" she exclaimed, causing both twins and Tough Girl to laugh.

"Well anyway, while you're enjoying your caffeine rush," Daniel said, "it's really nice to meet a fellow Asian all this way from home."

As he spoke, she could sense a forlorn, unhappy quality in his voice underneath the amiability. It wasn't strikingly obvious-but it was there.

Her heart went out to the twins. Toph's outlook on life was every bit as tough and firm as her body, and she wasn't exactly the touchy-feely type. Still, like anyone who has experienced hardship and sadness, she could recognize and respect distress when she encountered it-a talent which her heightened senses made her quite good at doing.

Except for their mom and baby brother, the twins had been uprooted from everything they knew, even their dad, whose absence was clearly hard on them. They felt very much out of place, lonely and like they just didn't belong. Just like her.

_At least you two have each other_, she thought, a little enviously.

"Same goes for you guys," she told them, smiling. "You know," she proposed, "we should get together sometime in the future, get to know each other better."

"You mean hang out together?" Mindy asked hopefully.

"Exactly. Have good times and talk."

"Sweet," Daniel replied. "It'll be nice to have a friend around here." Suddenly a bit self-conscious, he glanced at Tough Girl then, adding, "You can come too if you want."

"Hey, if you three want to do your thing without me I understand," Rachel dismissively assured him. "Thanks for offering though."

While they finished their lunch-including every bit of the pure, sweet sensual pleasure that was the Cinnabon-Toph and the Thongchai twins continued to talk and get to know each other better. She found out that their mom was named Nimnuan, and had moved to the "state" of "California," to pursue a career as a "designer." Their dad was named Kraisee, and worked as a business manager, while their little brother, Phet, was nine years old.

During that time, Yzark returned. After greeting the twins, she introduced herself as Olivia, Zhenzhu's foster mom. Daniel gave the disguised Chee his "phone number," whatever that was, so they could be contacted later if the bender chose.

"Well, it was nice to meet you Dan and Mindy," Toph said at length as she pushed back her chair and stood up, "but as much as I don't want to, it's time for me to get back to shopping for clothes. You guys want to come along too?"

"Not this time," Daniel replied. "Mindy enjoys that sort of thing, but right now we're headed to this cool magic store, and then to a place where they sell board games."

"Sounds fun," Toph said simply. "See you some other time?" she asked hopefully.

"Sure," Daniel said as he stood and stretched. "You just suggest something fun to do, let us know the time, the place, and at least one of us'll try to be there."

"Are you going to go to our school?" Mindy wondered. "Maybe we can spend more time together that way."

"I wish, but no," Toph sighed, honestly feeling somewhat bad about having to lie to both of them. "I'm going to a different one then yours."

"That's okay," Mindy said. "Anyway, it was great to meet and talk to both of you, Zhenzhu and Rachel."

"Thanks, you too," both girls said as they parted ways.

Despite the prospect of more shopping and trying on clothes in her near future, Toph was very pleased, almost glowing inside, smiling from ear to ear as she walked between Olivia and Rachel. She'd made not just one, but two new friends within the same half-hour!

"Well, that was nice to see," Rachel commented.

"What was?" Toph asked, a bit confused.

"You making friends with Dan and Mindy back there," Tough Girl specified.

"What can I say, we just had a connection," Toph shrugged as they wandered towards another clothing store, swiveling her head around to gaze at all the pretty colored "lights." "And just like me, they're pretty far from home," she added knowingly, gently.

"Which makes it an especially sweet and fitting gesture from you," the Chee praised.

She faintly smiled, touched. "Thanks."

As they walked, Toph heard a familiar voice.

"Rachel? That you?"

Boss Boy's.

"Hey Jake," she replied. "What brings you here?" Drawing closer she asked quietly, with a mix of suspicion and eagerness, "Something come up with the illegal aliens?"

Boss Boy laughed.

"No, not today at least," he said casually. "I'm just here to spend my hard-earned allowance on a new video game for my PlayStation. Chrono Cross, if anyone cares," he dryly added.

"Video games? Play Station? What are those?" Toph asked in confusion.

"It's too complicated to expla-" Boss Boy began. Suddenly he stopped, and lowered his head, meeting the earthbender's eyes with his own. It was a strange, disconcerting sensation, and she blinked.

She noticed that his hair was "brown" in color, and his eyes "blue," like Sokka's.

"You're in a partial morph," he muttered thoughtfully. "You're seeing now," he grinned proudly, in vicarious delight.

Toph was tempted to tell him _No Duh, Boss Boy_, but she suspected that might come across as rude, so she grinned back and politely nodded, saying "Yeah, I bent my eyes into Cassie's, and today I'm seeing shapes and colors for the first time ever! I saw the sunrise today with Haw-"

"Tobias," Jake carefully corrected her.

"With Tobias," Toph amended. "Anyway, it was just unbelievable, beyond anything I've ever imagined."

"I can't imagine exactly what it must be like to be blind and then suddenly see in color," he said as they walked. "Must almost be like a physical blow to you, with the shock and confusing new sensations. But I have a pretty good idea of how it must feel though from my own uh, experiences."

"That's exactly how it is Boss Boy," she earnestly confirmed as she shut her eyes once again to block things out. "Just like I'm doing now, it often just gets too overwhelming. But in a good way I guess."

"And how are you dealing with well, all this new stuff?" he asked, indicating the whole mall.

"It's a lot to take, but I'm managing. And it definitely helps to have Olivia and Tough Girl here to show me around."

"That's me, Queen of the Mall Crawlers and your friendly tour guide to all the shops," Rachel said primly.

"Still, I don't think I'll ever be able to totally get your society. It's too crazy and plain different."

"At least you're holding together though," Jake told her. "And it looks like you're behaving yourself a _lot_, a _**lot**_ better than Ax did the first time we brought him here."

Her curiosity piqued, Toph asked, "What'd he do Boss Boy?"

"Do?" he said, shaking his head. "To make a long story short, he got out of control over all the new tastes at the food court, the mall security chased him, he freaked out and began...changing back, with Marco and I trying to keep up as the really _bad_ cops (and the earthbender knew what he meant by bad) chased after us into the parking lot. Eventually we all ended up in the grocery store next door, where we all uh, let's just say hid in a tank of lobsters."

"Lobsters? What are those?"

"They're like a cross between a wrench and a really big, ugly, underwater bug with huge pincers," Rachel replied. "They're pretty good eating, generally when boiled."

"And that's nearly what happened to us," Jake shuddered. "A woman bought all three of us, brought us into her kitchen where she had a pot of water boiling, and-well, it's a good thing we changed back in time," he said grimly.

"Wow, you guys have some really weird, messed-up adventures," Toph said with dry surprise.

"You don't know the half of it," Rachel told her with a little laugh. "And you'll be having your own with us sooner than you think."

"I can definitely get why he got all overexcited though," Toph said. "You people make some amazingly tasty food and beverages. I'm still hyped up from your coffee!" she declared excitedly.

Boss Boy groaned. Turning to his cousin, she heard him say in disbelief, "You let her drink _coffee_? Without knowing if she'd react to it like _him_?"

"She wanted to try it," Tough Girl said defensively. "And I was right there with her in case she started acting too weird or the caffeine harmed her. She's practically been a model citizen compared to him."

"Thank God."

"I even made a couple of new friends today," she added with a strange sort of pride.

"You did? Cool," Jake said. "Who are they called?"

Toph told him, with both her and Rachel telling Boss Boy about meeting the Thongchai twins. From what she could tell, he seemed genuinely pleased at the idea of her having friends outside their Animorphs group.

"Trouble is, since I still don't know them very well, and have pretty much no idea what you people like to do for fun either, I have no clue what kind of activity to plan for next time we meet," she shrugged in irritated frustration.

"Hmm," Jake said thoughtfully. "Tell you what," he proposed, "how about asking them to go out bowling some night with you?"

"Bowling?" the earthbender asked in confusion, raising an eyebrow and cocking her head. "What sort of activity is that, Boss Boy?"

"It's a sport where you take a big, smooth, heavy ball with three holes in it for gripping, then you throw it down a sort of polished aisle of wood," he explained. "At the end are ten heavy, club-like things called pins, and the goal is to knock down as many of the pins as you can when you throw the bowling ball. There's more to it than that, but those are the basics," he shrugged.

"You'd probably enjoy it," Rachel added. "You have to put a lot of power in every throw of the ball, but at the same time you've got to do it with focus and precision if you want to get a good score. The pins also make a crash when hit that you'd probably find satisfying."

Toph literally liked the sound of that. Maybe she could use her bending to gain an advantage. "Sweet," she grinned. "So where's a place where we can do this 'bowling' thing?"

"Well, my dad recently bought a three-month pass to a bowling place called Blue Oak Lanes," Jake said, "so I'll ask him if I could go there sometime after school this week and bring you and your new pals along too."

"Awesome. That would be so great if we could!" she said.

"You'll have to watch your step though," he warned, "because wherever my Dad and I go, Tom often isn't far behind, and he might decide to come too."

She nodded knowingly.

"And if Jake's dad doesn't agree, I'll take you and the twins there myself," Olivia told her.

"Good to know," she said, happy to have a backup plan.

"Another thing I think they'd enjoy is going to Cassie's farm and riding the horses sometime," Rachel suggested.

"Yeah, that does sound like fun," Toph agreed.

It was time for them to part ways then, and Jake said "Anyway, see ya later. I'll let you know what my dad says tomorrow."

"Okay. See ya Boss Boy."

* * *

Toph had had both her fill of sight and the mall for the day, and had decided to retreat back to the world of darkness she knew best for at least a few hours.

Still, there was one last thing that she wanted and needed to do before leaving.

After vacillating for a while, the master bender decided that now that her hair was going to have to be worn either loose or in a braid to avoid drawing too much attention, and she didn't like the way it always caught between her back and the chairs, she'd go ahead and have it cut.

So Tough Girl steered her to a beauty salon/barber place called "Great Clips," which reeked of all sorts of oily, overpowering, stomach-turning odors from the hair care products. It gagged her.

But she sucked it up, walked over the smooth, unnatural, blinding "linoleum" floor, and sat down in a swiveling, form-fitting leather chair, where her hairdresser said, "My, you've sure grown one impressive head of hair. How much do you want me to shorten it?"

"To about here," Toph replied, indicating a place midway between her breasts and the bottom of her ribcage.

"Okay then," the hairdresser said cheerily as Toph felt her place a sort of protective cape over her front, sleek and crinkly. Not surprisingly, it was made from plastic.

As the hairdresser got to work, undoing Toph's braid and washing her locks before sending sheaves of the earthbender's hair falling to the floor, the newest Animorph deigned to get involved in small talk with her.

The hairdresser's name was Claire. She was 23 years old, half Filipino (whatever that was,) and half Chinese, which got both Toph's attention and the wheels in her head turning.

She thoughtfully nibbled her bottom lip. Right now, the only Earth-human she'd acquired was Sunshine. While it worked fine for the partial morphs she'd been doing on and off all day, it would be much too risky, even dangerous, to fully "copy" a fellow Animorph, especially if it was during a mission. At the very least, it could result in some pretty awkward questions for the real Cassie.

She needed an entirely new human "disguise" available, just in case, to blend in without making any Controllers suspicious about her comrades. And the perfect candidate was literally within touching distance.

* * *

**Mindy and Daniel's names are a tribute to the voice actors for Lin Beifong and Hiroshi Sato respectively from Legend of Korra. In this AU fic, they will become fairly important characters as time goes on.**


	18. Chapter 18

**And here's the chapter where we get to meet Mertil again!**

* * *

"Well, there we go. It's all done now," Claire said as she gave one final pass of the "blow dryer," with its disquieting churning noise and freaky ability to generate hot wind before stepping back and away. "How do you like your new look?" she asked.

Gradually, Toph relaxed, regarding herself in her very first mirror. She'd nearly jumped out of her skin and the chair alike when Claire had turned the hair dryer on, it'd startled her that much.

The experience of gazing at her own face for the first time was a further wonder of this amazing day for the earthbender, and for just a moment she had the crazy impulse to tell her, "Hey, you tell me. Since I've never been able to see at all until just four days ago and this is the first time I've ever seen in color, how would I know if I like it or not?"

Instead, she settled for simply smirking at the thought and saying with feigned joy, "Oh is it ever nice! You did a great job! This will be so much easier to manage now," as she experimentally ran her fingers through her shortened hair.

"Glad to hear that," Claire said in satisfaction as she gave the chair a quarter-turn so that Toph was facing Olivia and Rachel, seated in chairs in the carpeted waiting area. "What do you think Olivia?"

"It looks good," Tough Girl approved.

"Yeah, she did a nice job," the android agreed.

Yzark paid for the haircut as the earthbender casually stood by, awaiting her chance, her moment for the stylist to provide a strange sort of different payment herself.

During her time at the mall, it hadn't escaped her notice that in this "Earth" society, people greeted each other not by bowing, but by grasping the other person's hand firmly and shaking it a few times. A puzzling custom, but also a wonderfully convenient way to acquire as many Earth-people as she wanted!

So when Claire told her, "Have a great time now," Toph immediately extended her right hand as she smiled and said, "I will. Thanks for doing such a nice job."

Barely able to understand hand-eye coordination, the bender let the stylist take the more active role in clasping their hands. As soon as she had a good grip though, Toph immediately focused on the young woman, whose muscles immediately began to slacken, her long, narrow eyelids fluttering as the earthbender acquired her.

She had to admit, it kind of felt creepy, knowing that she was now going to be able to morph into another thinking, highly intelligent _person_, even wrong in some nebulous way.

_But I __**need**__ her as a living disguise_, she thought, _a place to hide in plain sight. And it'll just be a copy of Claire, not actually her._

The deed was soon done, and Toph released her grip as Claire lightly shook her head in confusion, briefly yawning before saying "Ugh. I must be more tired than I thought. These weekend shifts sure can take a lot out of you."

"Yeah, I bet they can," Yzark agreed.

"Better make sure you get a good sleep when you go home then," Rachel said as she briefly gave Toph what seemed like a telling sideways glance, although she was still rather unsure.

"Heh, sounds like good advice," Claire agreed. "Anyway, you all have a good day and come again now," she said as they turned to leave.

As they left the salon and headed towards the top of the third floor down escalator, Rachel looked around briefly before saying lowly, "You acquired that woman back there, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did," Toph said simply, holding a large bag of clothes in each hand. "I've already had Sunshine's dad and other people make comments about my strange green eyes, so I need a human morph that won't stand out so much and isn't one of you guys."

Tough Girl nodded in understanding. "You plan to fight _them _in your natural body at all while you're with us?"

Toph laughed. "You sure bet I do, Tough Girl," she grinned fiercely. "I'm gonna make them eat granite and steel," she declared as they stepped onto the first of the moving steps. "But that's another reason why it's important for me to get a human morph," she added.

"Say no more," Rachel replied. "That was definitely smart thinking. Let's just hope Cassie won't have one of her moralizing snits when she finds out."

"Why would she do that?"

"Well, she has a hangup about the idea of us morphing intelligent beings without their permission to do so," she replied as they got off the escalator. Lowering her voice, she added, "She has this idea that it somehow makes us no better than the slugs."

"Which I really don't get, since it's not like we're infesting the person, just duplicating them. And I don't exactly plan to use Claire's body for evil deeds."

"Exactly! Personally, I say that if they already know what we are, than yeah, it's nice to give consent. But if they're a smart animal or you can't let them know, then do what you need to do to stay under the radar."

"What's radar?"

"It's a complicated tracking method involving-" Yzark began.

"Eh, never mind, I don't need to understand it right now and that's all I care about," Toph dismissed. "I think I got the general point."

"Okay then."

In a way, despite its confusing, overwhelming newness and chaos, when it came time to leave the mall about twenty minutes later, Toph actually found herself reluctant to do so. Every moment provided a whole new visual or cultural or technological surprise. In this world beyond imagination, there was a staggering amount to discover, more than she could grasp even if she spent a solid week here.

But not only would Mertil be arriving tonight-well, hopefully-for her to acquire, they had to stop off at Yzark's house, drop Rachel off at hers, bring some of her new wardrobe to the cave, and get the bender some dinner, among other things.

She had to tear herself away.

Before setting foot on the mall's main floor, she carefully morphed her feet into Claire's, which expanded slightly in her moccasins.

Only when she was back in the car, surrounded by Oma knew how many bags of clothes, did Toph brace herself for the jarring and fully morph back, vision falling back into inky darkness.

"Well," she said, "that was definitely interesting, wasn't it?"

"Just another Sunday at the mall for me, but yeah, I'm sure that must've all blown your mind," Tough Girl agreed.

"Oh Shu yeah, multiple times," Toph said earnestly. "Even if I'd chosen to stay blind, all the things you people have created, your society...it still would've stunned me," she said, shaking her head. "I'm gonna have some crazy dreams tonight, I know that for sure."

"Welcome to the club. At least they shouldn't be nightmares-not yet," she rumbled ruefully.

"It was also great meeting Mindy and Dan."

"Yeah, they were nice people," Rachel agreed. "And again, it's awesome to see you making pals outside the group."

"I just hope neither of them or their mom and baby brother are Controllers."

"You and me both Toph. Since they're new here though, they're probably okay. Still, we've got to be really careful with everyone."

Toph nodded.

"And that reminds me, I already know that Antelope Boy tells you guys how many minutes you've spent in morph during each mission. Trouble is though, I'm planning to be in a human morph-or at least morphing my eyes-in situations where he won't always be able to be around. How will I be able to know when it's time to morph back?"

"Don't worry about that Toph," Yzark assured her as they left the parking lot. "We'll get you a timekeeping device called a digital watch to wear on your wrist to keep track."

"How do you tell time with these 'digital watches'? Are they like sundials at all?" she ventured.

"Nope," Rachel said. "There's a display on it that shows you three or four numbers that tell you the time of the day."

"Well, I have no idea what numbers even _look_ like, much less how to tell time with them," Toph shrugged helplessly.

"It's easy to learn," Tough Girl replied. "Tobias and Ax can teach you all about it."

"Sweet. I'll like that."

When Yzark parked the vehicle in front of her house about half an hour later, on a street she and Rachel called "Carver Drive," Toph once more gratefully opened the door, grabbed a bag of clothing, and stepped out.

She was greeted by the excited barking of four dogs and the impacts of their paws as they came through what seemed like some kind of panel in the front door and ran up to a metal fence made of interlocking wire diamonds which surrounded the house, pawing and leaping.

The car was "parked" on a long slab of the unnatural material called concrete. Behind them it led to the road, and in front to a second, mostly empty structure, smaller than the house, that Toph assumed was used to put the weird car machine in at night or something.

Peeling away to her right from the great slab was a curving path made of sections of the same concrete, which led to the gate that the dogs were rearing and pawing at.

The house had an underground portion and a floor resting on the ground, but that was all she could tell from it at the moment.

Rachel got out too as Yzark shut off that stupid, headache-inducing engine, and glanced in the direction of the dogs.

Abruptly, and unaccountably, the earthbender felt the other girl's heartbeat speed up, and her muscles tense uneasily. Clearly, there was something about the dogs, or at least one of the dogs, that she didn't like.

"You've got a pit bull," she remarked coolly as Yzark came around to their side of the car.

"Yep, that's Red, my female pit bull. Got her from a local rescue."

"I hope to God she's friendly," Rachel said warily as Toph felt her turn her head to give the android a sideways look.

"Are these dogs dangerous?" Toph asked, beginning to feel uneasy herself as she concentrated on the barking dogs.

"Oh you'd better believe they are," Rachel said. "There's a reason drug dealers use these dogs to guar-"

"Well, Red wasn't brought up that way," Yzark interrupted. "Trust me, she's a very, very sweet dog who loves everybody. Besides," she added, "most attacks on people by pit bulls are by unneutered males."

"If you say so," Rachel muttered as she reached in to grab two bags of clothing herself. "I still can't get the time when this one pit bull went for Jordan and me when I was just nine out of my head though. Thank Jesus he was on a leash," she shuddered. "My mom was so mega-pissed and upset."

"I don't doubt that," Yzark replied. "Like I said though, Red's good as gold-she even likes cats."

It turned out that all of Yzark's dogs were pretty well-behaved and friendly, sniffing at and dancing around Toph as she came through the gate.

Besides Red, she had a male "Scottish Terrier," named Simon, a female wooly coated "standard poodle," named Cinnamon, and a male Black Labrador/German Shepherd cross named Sirius.

Although their breeds were different, the earthbender was familiar with dogs.

Yzark's home though, was like nothing she'd ever encountered before.

First of all, practically everything was surfaced either with slick "linoleum," shaggy, soft "carpeting," or wooden paneling, which she couldn't sense vibrations through. It was all quite irritating.

The bathrooms were better. They were floored with tiles, which meant she could properly use her seismic sensing there-but only there, islands in a sea of yielding nothingness that forced her to have to rely on touch, smell, and her newfound, still roughly honed sense of vision to get around.

After they'd unloaded the "SUV," and set down all the bags in the entryway or dining room, Rachel took Toph's hand and carefully led her around as Olivia opened up the clothes and began putting them away...and once more, she morphed just her eyes so she could see, this time into Claire's.

There was a basement, sunk into the ground, with a sliding glass door that led outside. On the main floor, there was the entryway, the dining room with its wooden table, a bathroom, the fully furnished kitchen with its U-shaped layout, and a combination living room/library.

On the second floor, there was another bathroom, a furnished main bedroom (notwithstanding the fact that like all of her fellow Chee, the need for sleep was unknown to Yzark), a hallway, and a guest bedroom with a dresser and closet.

To her great joy, Toph found that the thoughtful Chee had previously built a shallow wooden structure Rachel called a "sandbox," in the guest bedroom, made of sweet-smelling "cedar" wood and filled with "aquarium gravel" for her to sleep in, a bed which appealed to her own unique range of senses.

It was as sweet a gesture to her as if Yzark had prepared her a bed with feather pillows and silk sheets, and made her eyes water a bit with gratitude. This was a private place, a civilized place that she could come to whenever she wanted.

She promptly got into the sandbox and lay on her left side in the gravel, testing it out.

"Ah, that feels nice," she sighed in satisfaction. "Don't even have to use any bending to smooth things out. And the wood smells great too. I could definitely get used to this Tough Girl."

"Sure looks like it," Rachel commented with a light laugh. "Never thought I'd see someone treat a box of gravel like it was the last word in luxury."

"Well, you gotta expect the unexpected with earthbenders-especially me," she grinned.

"I can imagine. Anyway, you ready to continue with me showing you around? No offense, but I've got to head home soon."

"How far _is_ your home from here?" Toph asked as she got up, brushing off a stray bit or two of gravel.

"About a forty minute walk northeast of here."

Thinking, she asked, "Could I visit your place sometime?"

"I guess so. Jordan and Sara always like making new friends, and my mom will leap at any excuse to show what a great hostess she is, so yeah, we could figure something out."

Toph quickly discovered that in this Earth society, people relied heavily on various specialized machines called "appliances" to perform tasks and conveniences for them.

Yzark's house contained a box called a "microwave," for heating up food, a strange metal oven with a "stove" on top, a "refrigerator," which released a chilly gush of air whenever opened and was used to store food, an attached "freezer," which produced a truly icy flood of air, and a metal box called a "toaster," among other examples of these marvelous appliances.

But some of these appliances could also be every bit as dangerous to a naïve, blind girl as any Yeerk or firebender, and both Rachel and Yzark made it clear to Toph that until and unless she could learn to read English and/or operate them on her own, she should leave preparing and cooking food to the android, a sentiment which the bender agreed with.

In addition, while Olivia had already done a good job of securing them for the safety of her dogs, there were cupboards and closets which contained lethally toxic cleaning products like "bleach," "glass cleaner," "Lysol," "Spic-and-Span," "Scrubbing Bubbles," "Liquid Plumber," and "WD-40," among other things.

That made no sense to Toph. Why would a society create such terribly poisonous things and then allow them to be used in people's houses? And why would a person choose to take something that they knew was dangerously toxic but use it to clean their home anyway? There was no reason to have a home so unnaturally _clean_ like this particular one in the first place, she knew that much.

At any rate, she was shown the cupboards where they were kept and told that as a general rule, not to eat or drink anything that comes out of a metal cylinder or spray bottle.

Instead of being drawn from a river or well, water was delivered through metal pipes, and was accessed by turning a thing called a "faucet." If you turned in to the left, you got cold water to flow. If you turned it to the right, you got hot water-scalding hot.

Last but not least, they warned her about "electricity," a sort of controlled, constant lightening which flowed through the tough, leathery cords to power lights and appliances. But as Azula had made her all too aware, lightening in any form was dangerous, and could kill her before she even had time to _think_ about healing herself through morphing. Both the outlets and the corners of tables were covered by special plastic (always plastic!) guards for her protection.

Other than removing them from their packaging, the most pressing thing to do with Toph's new wardrobe and accessories was to divide it into items that would stay here, and some that could back to the cave for her to place on the ledges and pegs she'd created earlier.

While she did what she could to help with what work she could understand, Tough Girl and Yzark did most of it. The earthbender used the time to put on the uncomfortably constricting purple leotard (or morphing suit) and moving about to break it in, donning a pair of looser, warm "teal green sweatpants," and a black "T-shirt" over them that Rachel said depicted a scowling elephant holding a serrated knife in its trunk and read "Elephants never forget-and they never forgive either." She guessed that was supposed to either be funny or badass.

When she decided to sit on the couch, all four of Olivia's dogs came over to greet her and solicit petting (she'd heard her dad joke to her mom once that as far as a dog was concerned, every second you weren't petting it was a second that was being horribly wasted.)

She heard and felt Sirius jump up onto the couch at her right, pressing his left haunch into her and panting happily as she obligingly ruffled the smooth, long fur on the shepherd mix's back.

Simon jumped up as well, unhesitatingly stepping into the earthbender's lap and lying on his side as she stroked his wild, curly coat.

Red, the pit bull, stocky and stout with a huge head, joined them and took up position on Toph's left, her coat sleek and smooth under the bender's hand, while Cinnamon lay down at her feet.

As she petted the android's dogs, dividing her attention among them, it occurred to Toph that they were the perfect morphs to travel to and from Olivia's house, not to mention around town or anywhere else she pleased, quickly and without arousing suspicion. As a bonus, they could serve as excellent tracking or combat morphs if the situation required it...especially Red and Sirius.

With a sudden, greater degree of purpose now, Toph Beifong's left hand traveled to Red's broad back. To the casual observer, it would've seemed like the pit bull was engaging in the always popular canine activity of dumbly staring off into space at that moment. They would've been utterly wrong.

* * *

Underneath the emerging stars in the chill air of evening, I ran about a _ghongat _between the strange, canine-formed bipedal droid who called himself a Chee as he raced and weaved among the trees of the forest, resplendent with the colors of fall.

The Chee, who called himself Erek, had come to my home in company with Aximili to tell me about a curious blind girl, Asian in her phenotype and habits, who had the striking ability to shift stone and earth telekinetically. Of course, I could scarcely believe such a being existed at all, far less on Earth. As for my ailing _edra_, Gafinilan, in his human morph to temporarily escape the pain of his progressively severe fatal illness, he treated the claim with outright scorn, calling it a "ridiculous lie."

I say human morph because neither my doomed _edra_ nor I are human. Like him, I am an Andalite, mostly resembling a furry blue mixture between a human and an Earthly deer. My own name is Mertil-Iscar-Elmand, one of only three known Andalites to survive the conflict between the detestable Yeerks and our fighters in space.

Sadly, we were roundly defeated, and a crash landing of my fighter on Earth left me badly injured, severing the upper half of my tail and leaving me without my fighting blade, which not only left me forever defenseless, but is psychologically equivalent to castration for a human male.

I am in short, a _velcol_. A cripple, useless to my people.

All the same, I still have a warrior's heart. I have my dignity. And the will to endure, to continue on.

To meet this "Chee," a mimic of natural life far more advanced than even the most cutting-edge Andalite science in artificial intelligence could achieve, able to generate and maintain extraordinarily detailed holograms was astounding enough as a revelation for both of us.

But it could hardly compare to the holographic images he projected on one of the living room walls from just this morning, showing the naturally blind girl, whose name was "Toph Beifong," somehow psychically manipulating solid stone in a ravine to rise up into the air on a pillar of rock.

My reaction was just like the first time I ever saw someone morph as a calf, it was that stunning. My eyestalks rose up so high that I thought they would snap from the force as my body went rigid and my ears flicked erect.

Gafinilan was equally astounded, his human jaw partially open and eyes wide in a typical human expression of amazement and incomprehension.

According to this "Erek," and Aximili, this "human" Toph was, like us, not of Earth, but claimed to have been sent here by an Ellimist. It goes without saying that believing them came pretty easily to us.

Then, as Erek politely drew back, Aximili remained in the center of the room, drawing himself up into a formal stance. Squaring his shoulders and holding his tail respectfully low with ears held high, he delivered a proposition.

Apparently, this earth shifter, Toph, deeply desired to acquire an Andalite, and had expressed that desire to the _arsith_ last night, claiming it would not only be an effective option for a combat morph, but could be used to effectively deceive the Yeerks and maintain cover. Understandably finding the idea to be disturbing and perhaps dishonorable, he had refused her request to acquire him.

Now he had come to ask me if I would concede to travel to the earth shifter's dwelling in the forest to meet her and have her acquire me.

Gafinilan was immediately furious at the idea.

"_How __dare__ you come to our house and have the nerve to suggest that my _edra_ disgrace himself in such a way, to have an alien take in his DNA, insult him by transforming herself into his image!_" he'd bellowed with his human vocal cords as he'd leapt to his feet. "_If I was in my natural body right now, young arsith-"_

(_Silence Gafinilan,_) I'd interjected then, my thought-speak voice both forceful and reasonable at the same time as I turned my stalk eyes toward him. And his demeanor became slightly less aggressive. (_Yes, Aximili's proposal and the earth shifter's request are distinctly...rather unorthodox,_) I'd agreed.

(_However,)_ I went on calmly, (_it is directed toward me and me alone. And do not forget my _edra_, that I owe my freedom-and quite likely my _life_-to this arsith and his human comrades. To allow the earth shifter to acquire me would be both an easy and fitting way to repay them for their courageous deed. And besides, I am now interested in meeting her in person,_) I'd added.

His attitude had softened some more, and he'd thoughtfully scuffed a bare human foot against the carpet. "_Yes_," he'd admitted, briefly making eye contact with Aximili, "_we owe the youths a great debt. And it is true that this decision does not demand my involvement. But all the same Mertil, I cannot abide thinking of you humiliating yourself by allowing this alien to-"_

(_I am already a velcol without his tail blade,_) I'd pointed out, gesturing to the stub of my tail. (_Therefore I am already humiliated. What more have I to lose?_)

"_That was an accident Mertil! And it doesn't mean you should go out and dishonor yourself even fur-"_

(_She will simply be taking my DNA Gafinilan, nothing more,_) I'd assured him. (_And remember, this earth shifter Toph is a velcol herself due to her blindness. Surely there is no dishonor in having a velcol of one species acquire a velcol from another?_) I'd asked, giving him an eye-smile laced with faint mirth.

"_No, I suppose not,_" he'd said reflectively. "_And if one of us can continue to harm and bedevil the Yeerks, even in such an indirect, complicated way, that's certainly not a bad thing._"

I'd suddenly thought then of a quote by a human male of Russian ethnicity named Leon Trotsky, who'd said, "You may not be interested in war, but war is very interested in you."

Yes. Even if our disabled status made us unable to actively fight the Yeerks or-mercifully-unappealing to them as hosts, it was hardly a guarantee that they'd leave us alone forever.

As much as it pained my hearts to think about it, Gafinilan would almost certainly be dead long before Visser Three and his Yeerk forces completed their conquest of Earth. But then what of me?

Every Andalite over the age of 8 knew that the Yeerks eliminated whatever living beings they found to be of no practical use...including _velcols_ like me. It was a chilling thought indeed.

But it was also a bracing one. By giving the earth shifter my DNA, I could still make one small difference, and improve my odds just a bit more.

(_Then I am going to meet her_,) I'd resolved. (_It will be good to get out of the house as well.)_

Gafinilan had hesitated, looking at Erek and Aximili, then at me, mouth slightly open as if he intended to say something.

Looking back at Erek, he'd asked warily, "_Are you certain that your cloaking technology can keep him effectively hidden from sight during this journey, especially through the residential areas?_"

"_I can easily manipulate it to make it seem like he is nothing more than a large dog leaving the greenhouse with you to go for a walk,_" the droid had assured us. "_And when we are several hundred meters from here, I will alter it to deceive any observers into thinking that he is just an earthly deer. No one will notice or suspect otherwise."_

(_As for me, I shall leave now in my human morph,_) Aximili had informed us.

"_Then you have my blessings Mertil, my shorm,_" Gafinilan had told me. "_Be safe, and tell me everything about this earth shifter when you return from your mission,_" he'd asked me. "_You'll know where to find me,_" he added wearily then, as he turned to head to the keypad in the kitchen...and the hidden rooms it accessed.

Yes. I would know where to find him, and it made both my eyestalks and ears sag with sorrow.

On a king-sized mattress in the grass-floored room, legs folded up underneath him as his impressive Andalite muscles twitched in spasms of pain, ears drooping in a symptom that I believe is shared with the Earthly domestic herding animals called cattle and sheep when they are unwell.

Soon enough I knew, the final crisis would come, and I would have to contact Cassie to either provide palliative care and pain relief during those last days, or end his suffering with an injection, depending on his wishes.

It would be good for me, even for a few hours, to get away from our house and such agonizing thoughts.

We left, Erek and I, through the main door of the greenhouse at around the time when most humans consume dinner inside their dwellings and have their dogs secured.

I was admittedly nervous. My hollow Andalite hooves can make a real racket on concrete and paved surfaces, and I knew full well that even if the Yeerks were still somehow ignorant of Earth's existence, humans were likely to react to my appearance with horror and xenophobia, perhaps even misplaced defensive aggression.

Oh, I have gone outside of our mutual dwelling before of course. It is what allowed me to foolishly get captured on video by a human hiker and so draw the attention of The Abomination.

But I have always done so rarely, and either on dark nights or during thunderstorms, returning under similarly concealing conditions and scrupulously avoiding lighted areas like I was a human fugitive. Never have I dared do it during early evening.

But as I looked around with my stalk eyes and willed myself to trot alongside the Chee, moving farther and farther away from the security of home, the few humans we encountered gave me no more than passing attention. And it made my tension dissipate.

According to Erek, his holographic technology was currently disguising me as a large, intimidating looking breed of dog called an English mastiff.

But when we got to a large clump of coniferous trees-Douglas firs, I believe they are called-near the sidewalk on a property that was suitably distant from mine, he led me among them and changed my cloaking disguise to a deer.

Then, making sure to avoid any properties with large dogs, we ran among people's houses, heading to the woods and where Toph's cave was roughly "as the crow flies," to use a human expression. It was exhilarating, quite frankly, to graze on the lovingly tended lawns as we ran, absorbing the prime grass, moving freely through human civilization, seeing the setting sun, and feeling the almost forgotten excitement of going out on a mission, even if it was just so someone could acquire my DNA.

Soon, we'd left the town behind, running through a newly built housing development and then entering the forest, hurdling logs and crashing through bushes, inhaling the crisp air.

After a time, my sensitive ears picked up the sound of running water, and Erek slowed his pace. I did as well.

"We're coming up to the ravine where Toph lives, so I'm going to turn the holograph off now," the droid commented offhandedly.

"All right."

My stalk eyes turning back and forth, I strode into the sloping head of the ravine, stepping over water-rounded stones as Erek walked about a gongat ahead.

As we drew closer to where the cave was, I could see the flickering yellow and orange light of a fire filtering out into the ravine, and hear three human voices speaking among each other, as well as a strange, grinding sound from within. Intriguing. Could that be the sound of Toph engaging in earth shifting?

Erek seemed ready to hail them.

But it turned out there was no need.

A young female voice suddenly said eagerly, in heavily accented English, "Time for a break guys. I'm feeling a Chee and my Andalite visitor coming this way."

I continued to trot forward as the earth shifter then chose to show herself, striding out of the cave and facing me.

At first glance, there was nothing especially striking about her appearance, except her foggy, spearmint green irises. She looked little different from your typical Han or Manchurian Chinese girl, her long black hair tied back with an elastic orange cloth-covered band dubbed a ponytail holder, wearing a short sleeved upper garment made from cotton cloth known as a "T-shirt" which bore a comical depiction of a threatening elephant and a loosely fitting, warmer article of clothing secured at the waist and known as "sweatpants."

But no one knows better than we Andalites that looks can be deceiving. This was a girl who, if she chose, had the power to crack a mountain into pieces like it was a dropped vase, and tear open a thick steel door as if it was made of the flimsy human material called cardboard. I shall admit that I was filled with a respectful awe being in her presence.

Behind her came Aximili and the nothlit, Tobias, both in human morph. Presumably they had been assisting her in domestic tasks that her blindness rendered her incapable of performing.

Reflexively, I rotated my ears back slightly and self-consciously tucked the remains of my tail down against my right leg under their gaze, somewhat like an Earthly dog that fears punishment or is exhibiting submission after having been defeated in a struggle for power. I do not feel they were judging me, but I simply can't help it.

"Hey Mertil," Tobias said. "Really nice to see you again."

Arsith Aximili simply flicked his ears in acknowledgement, saying (Hello Erek.)

"Evening."

(It is a pleasure to see you as well To...Tobias,) I replied, grasping for his name.

Switching my attention back to the girl, I said (So you are Toph Beifong, the earth shifter.)

"None other," she said proudly, raising her right hand to itch her nose. "So, you must be Mertil. Glad you decided to come."

(Yes, that I am. Mertil-Iscar-Elmand is at your bidding,) I replied, giving a half bow.

Pausing for a moment, she commented, "You're missing a good chunk of your tail. Did you have an accident or something?"

Shame and surprise jostled each other in my brain.

(Yes, I no longer have my-my tail blade,) I sighed. (It was severed when my fighter crashed on this planet. But how could you have known that? Did Aximili or Tobias tell you?) I asked as I twisted my left eyestalk towards my fellow Andalite, now demorphing from human along with Tobias, the Ellimist-blessed nothlit as my right one scanned our surroundings in concession to our species' innate caution.

You must understand, I not only knew, but could now see for myself that the earth shifter was blind, her eyes flicking about as randomly as the heads of the finches that visited our trio of feeders at home (Both Gafinilan and I share a great mutual delight and affection for birds), or even just blankly focusing ahead.

Yet somehow, she'd been able to discern my injury without the use of her eyes!

"No," she replied with a light laugh. "I figured that out on my own by using my earthbending to get a good picture of you."

(How is that possible?) I asked in bafflement, the task of hiding my damaged tail forgotten as my eyestalks went erect.

"I feel the vibrations you make as you move through the soles of my feet," she explained, "and also send out vibrations of my own to get a better image of you."

(Extraordinary!) I breathed out in wonder, fixing her with all four eyes now. (How accurate is your vibration sensing precisely?)

"Fairly good," she replied as she threw up her arms in a stretch. "I can tell not only that you're missing half your tail, but that you're bigger-and I'd guess older-than Antelope Boy here and have a stockier, brawnier body shape."

(Brawny?) Aximili commented, his stalk eyes lifting slightly. (That is a type of paper toweling they sometimes advertise during These Messages. 'Try Brawny, now with extra thirst pockets!') he imitated.

(Off topic Ax-man,) Tobias said.

"Well, anyway, since the reason you're here in the first place is so I can acquire you, let's quit talking and get this done," Toph said as she began to walk forward.

I remained where I was, ears idly flicking, as she approached me and placed her hand against my chest, closing her eyes and focusing.

While I have seen other Andalites acquire other living creatures before, and so had an idea of what to expect, I'd never experienced the sensation for myself until then.

I felt my ears and eyestalks sag somewhat, and a faraway, placid feeling came over me as my DNA was transmitted into her, giving her the ability to transform into a healthy copy of me whenever she pleased.

Then she stepped back, and the acquiring trance was broken as I snapped alert again, blinking and pricking my ears.

(So _that _is what the acquiring trance is like,) I said reflectively. (Interesting.)

"Yeah. Thanks for agreeing to come over here and let me do this Antelope Man."

I chuckled, despite myself. (You are welcome, Toph the earth shifter.)

Now back in the form of a hawk, Tobias glanced at her with his penetrating eyes, asking (Feel like trying the new morph out, or just getting back to putting the clothes away for now?)

"I say let's see how it works," Toph grinned eagerly. "This'll be sweet, seeing in four directions at once! You want to come along too Mertil?"

(I suppose,) I said uncertainly, lowering my stalk eyes and swinging my right forehoof back and forth as I shifted my weight.

Frankly, I was very uncomfortable with the idea of being present to witness the earth shifter morph into a replica of me-and a replica that would have an intact tail.

Not only would it be eerie and disturbing, but-well, if you were missing a bodily appendage and then someone used your DNA to transform into a whole, normal version of you before your very eyes, wouldn't you feel like they were making a mockery of your loss too?

Indeed, Tobias said something then to Toph in private thought-speak, causing her to glance from him to me.

"Hey, if he doesn't want to come along, he doesn't have to," she shrugged. "He held up his end of the offer."

Turning her attention back to me, she said, "Anyway, once again, thanks for agreeing to come all the way over here Mertil. I guess you can go back home with Erek now if you want."

(Actually, I think it might be nice to graze out here for a time,) I responded. (Nor have I had the chance to witness your earthshifting abilities for myself as yet.)

"Earthbending," she corrected, but her tone was mild. "And you want to see me in action? Then just watch this," she proudly announced.

Turning to my right, she walked up to the corresponding side of the ravine, held out her hands, and made a pulling motion with her hands in the air.

To my profound disbelief and shock, impossibly, with a great grinding and cracking, a ramp of solid stone emerged from the ravine wall!

I stood stupefied, numbly blinking, as Toph lowered her hands and the motion of the stone ceased.

Turning, her lips curved in a smirk of knowing pride, clearly delighting in the effect her demonstration had had upon me, she casually stated, "Feel like using a shortcut to get out of here and to the pasture quicker Mertil?"

This would be a story to tell my edra indeed!

I decided to come along with the earthshifter in the end, both to witness her morph into me and to feed in the pasture where she intended to do so.

Aximili and I both nimbly trotted up the ramp and out of the ravine, Toph following as Tobias flew overhead, all three of us breaking into a canter. Erek elected to stay where he was, patiently awaiting my return to bring me back home.

Upon reaching the barbed wire fence that surrounded the pasture, Aximili and I simply leapt over it after Tobias informed us we were alone. Toph however, simply held her arms at her sides, palms downward, her muscles trembling slightly, and then drew them up along her ribs.

Once more, I watched, entranced, as a slightly tilted pillar of stone, just like in the holographic footage Erek had shown me, rose out of the soil underneath her. This was power like I'd never imagined.

When it was about two meters high, she stopped the shifting and nimbly leapt over the fence to join us after wisely turning and lowering her hands downward through the air to bury the pillar again and so prevent suspicion.

At a place perhaps twenty _ghongat_ or so out into the field, Toph stopped and removed her outer clothing, obviously to prevent it from being damaged while morphing, revealing a dark colored leotard underneath.

I noticed a simple, yet still elegantly attractive, metal armband on the upper bicep of her right arm, which ironically is one of the few adornments my species can regularly be seen wearing.

As she took it off and placed it on the ground, she sternly said, "No one even _think_ about touching that bracelet while I'm in morph, okay?"

(We know it's special to you Toph,) Tobias assured her. (Don't worry.)

She gave a short nod and stepped back.

As we watched, she focused on my DNA in her blood, and began to grow an extra set of legs from her chest, her spine already lengthening.

It was when the fur began to appear that we got an unexpected shock.

* * *

**A _ghongat _is an Andalite unit of measurement equaling about 4 feet.**

**Whether you view them as being in a romantic, passionate relationship, or simply as BFF, there's no denying that Mertil and Gafinilan shared a warm, profound bond in book #40, and I wish we'd seen more of them in the series. So I couldn't resist giving our tailless Andalite the chance to speak for himself in this chapter and a bit more time in the spotlight! Indeed, I plan to experiment with more character viewpoints as this fic goes on, including maybe even having Toph narrate in first person now and again.**

**So far, I've had this fic mostly be about Toph meeting the Animorphs/getting to know them and our society better/settling in/coming to grips with vision and the morphing power/acquiring things, and generally being like an episode of 24. Soon however, I'm going to change tack on this, and get to some action!**

**Once more, whether good or critical, your reviews give me the motivation to continue at this fic. Please take the time to leave them!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Well, I finally decided to take a leap of faith and have Toph narrate a chapter for herself this time. I hope I did a good job of it.**

* * *

**Toph**** Beifong**.

Most of the Animorphs write their strange, disturbing tales about this war down in carefully hidden notebooks, journals.

I guess it's a way not only of recording what's happened to them, so that one day other people will know, but of getting things out of their system, of keeping themselves sane.

But I'm a different case. Even if the power they gave me has given me the chance to see for up to two hours, I'm not exactly familiar with the idea of writing, much less doing it in a different language.

And I guess I'm not all that good with fancy words or descriptions either. Now Iroh, he definitely is. Twinkletoes is too, amazingly enough. Even Meathead, Shu help us, is fairly good.

But like I just said, with me, not so much. Besides, being blind and an earthbender, I sense and understand my world in ways that you sighted people would have a lot of trouble relating to.

It's like trying to understand what it's like to have a dog's sense of smell-and I've _been_ a dog before people. You can give someone a rough idea of how different and special and amazing it is, but words just can't measure up to experiencing it for yourself.

And besides, since I'm nowhere _close_ to being a master writer and always keep "my" notebook in a slot in my cave, this means I need either Sunshine or Ax in his human morph to take time out of their already mega-stressful schedules to act as my scribe. Occasionally Hawk Boy helps too.

Right now, Sunshine is being nice enough to do my writing for me as we sit together out in the ravine.

So you won't be hearing much directly from my point of view, or what Smart Aleck calls "first person narration." Still, whenever I bother to do it, I'll give it the best shot I can in true earthbender style!

And as long as we're speaking of Antelope Boy...

Of all the body bending I'd done since getting the power, turning into an Andalite was definitely the weirdest. I mean, all the birds and animals I'd become so far had had a body with either four legs or two legs and a pair of wings, which was something I could relate to.

But a body with six limbs? Now that was just freaky.

But hey, at least I'd be able to see in all directions, and it wouldn't be a gross, tiny, defenseless one like an insect's. Those were morphs I didn't want to even _think_ about having to do.

I focused, and felt my spine begin to stretch out with a creepy creaking sound.

There was a grinding feeling and sound, a certain heaviness in my back at about the level of the bottom of my ribs as what I guess you could call an extra pair of shoulders began to form, forcing me to lean forward.

I don't know who the Andalite that first invented this bodybending technology was, but boy, am I ever grateful they made sure that the process wasn't painful. If it did involve pain, I don't know how anyone could stand even a few seconds of it. The sounds are bad enough.

There was a sort of punching, moist sound, like stepping in mud, as a pair of legs, an actual pair of extra legs, burst out from the bottom of my chest, gradually lengthening and thickening.

Not much rattles the universe's greatest earthbender, and I'm kinda embarrassed to admit to it, but I screamed right then.

"Oh, oh, YYAAAAAHHHH!" I shrieked.

(Keep at it Toph,) Hawk Boy urged. (This'll be over soon.)

"_Easy for you to say_!" I shot back, my voice and body both shaking with horror. I don't think I've ever been so happy to be blind in my life as I was then. Having an extra pair of legs shoot out of your chest is something I can totally live without seeing.

Somehow, I found it in me to force the screaming horror aside and complete the morph. I fell forward, my newly forming extra pair of legs catching me.

My tits disappeared, and my hair kind of melded into the back of my head and back, causing that stretchy cloth-covered thing Tough Girl called a ponytail holder to fall to the ground. I'd pick it up later.

But the body-hugging piece of clothing she called a leotard, which basically feels like one big breast binding for the entire body to me, simply melted into my skin, like a clump of snow in your palm.

My spine grew even longer between the two sets of running legs, and all four thighs became packed, filled out with muscle as I felt a second, entirely new set of ribs begin to grow, the human part of me remaining upright.

I felt a bizarre, steady pounding as a whole new heart, and then another, grew inside me. One was at the base of my humanish chest, while the third was a little ways behind the first set of legs. The original one stayed where it belonged. Something that was still normal at least.

Now came the part of bodybending that I always hate, losing my ability to earthbend as my feet and lower legs turned into the deer-like ones of the Andalite. It really is an awful feeling, like something inside of you has been torn out to leave a vast pit inside your mind and your chest. You feel naked, vulnerable, and horribly incomplete.

Sometimes, ever since I first morphed the bat, while sitting by the fire or otherwise just killing time, I think about Hawk Boy and wonder, what if I got trapped in a morph one day too? That would suck on so many levels obviously, but I think the worst would be that it would mean never being able to bend the earth, to bend metal, feel that connection with it ever again.

I think of Flipper Girl too, and how she actually has the ability to take away your ability to bend with her crazy, terrifying chi-blocking skills. Even if it only lasts for a short time, and even though I guess we're friends now, it still gives me the creeps. No one should be able to do that!

I just hope like anything that someone never figures out a way to go one step further with it and take someone's bending away permanently.

The vision that replaces it is a pretty sweet tradeoff, don't get me wrong, (the intense color and actually _watching_ movement is the best part for me.)

Still, it's so limiting. You can only know what's going on right in front of you, and have to depend either on your ears or someone else to tip you off to what's happening behind your back. And if you hear a sound behind you, then you have to stop and waste time turning your head around to look at it.

It's pretty annoying, and yeah, kinda makes you edgy. Antelope Boy's told me he feels the same way about morphing into a human. I guess it's just a bit ironic then, that wanting to at least try out a form where I could comfortably see in all four directions was a major reason for me wanting to acquire a member of his kind, the ones who came up with this bodybending technology in the first place.

And of course, to be able to pull a fast one on the Yeerks if we needed to.

Anyway, getting back on track here, I felt my link with the earth vanish as the bones of my heel and ankle were twisted upright with just the grossest popping, cracking sound, becoming narrower and longer, raising my butt further up into the air as a tail started to grow from it.

(Uuuhhhh,) I shuddered.

Then my natural eyes became larger, wider in my skull, and gradually, I became able to see through the main eyes of an Andalite!

Now let's back up here for just a bit. Keep in mind that while I was well on my way to becoming an Andalite, I didn't have all that much fur growing on me yet.

But now, as my arms became slimmer, my mouth and throat totally sealed up-which was just a bit frightening-and my hands developed two extra fingers, I felt the familiar itchiness as it appeared in big patches all over me, spreading and expanding.

Through my main Andalite eyes, even as I felt these two sort of openings develop in the top of my skull, I saw both Antelope Boy and Mertil (or "Stubby" as I thought of him,) suddenly stand totally upright in what I thought could be amazement and confusion-I still have some trouble telling-all four of their eyes intently focused on me.

(Can it be?) Stubby said, baffled.

(What? Can what be?) I replied.

I figured they were astonished at watching me turn into one of their own.

At that moment, two things happened. First, my stalk eyes finally finished growing, sitting on these twisty rods of tough muscle that could turn and bend in any direction.

Second, three solid, horn-covered rings of bone formed at the end of my new, incredibly long tail, and from the last one grew a sharp, curved, very pointy blade.

But this tailblade was different from the dao sword one on Antelope Boy. Even without looking back at it, I could tell it was somewhat smaller, shorter. More like a dagger.

At that, both Andalites jerked back, their eyes widening. Hawk Boy seemed surprised too, fluffing his feathers on the fence.

(You're female!) Ax cried.

(Really? No way!) I said sarcastically. (Looks like some things must really take a while to sink in for you, huh Ante-) I began dryly.

(He's not talking about you personally Toph,) Hawk Boy interrupted, his own head-talk a bit confused too. (He means your Andalite morph is female, which really doesn't make sense.)

(Why wouldn't it make sense?) I asked, puzzled. (Since I'm a girl, my Andalite morph should be a girl too, right?)

(Actually, since I am male and you acquired me, your morph should have the secondary sexual characteristics of an adult male instead,) Mertil told me.

(Um, why exactly? And now that I remember it, the horse morph you did last night was a mare,) I said as I turned my stalk eyes to look at Antelope Boy. It was amazingly natural, came without even thinking. (How does all that weirdness work?)

(Oh boy,) Tobias sighed. (Right now, it would take too long to sit down and fully explain Genetics 101 to you-)

(What's genetics?)

(Well, there you go. It's too complicated to go into right now. But basically, all you need to know about it for now is that every single animal has very, very tiny instructions inside of it that tell its body what it'll become, how it'll behave, how smart it'll be, how it'll grow up and develop, where each part of it'll go, and so on.)

After standing and thinking all this over for a few secs, I replied, (I guess that makes sense. I mean, I asked my nanny once why there were different kinds of animals in the world, and why one kind couldn't have the babies of another. Her first answer was, 'Because Tu Gong made them all that way.')

(That is the name of her culture's primary deity, associated with the earth and its bending,) Antelope Boy explained to Stubby.

(That wasn't really much of an answer to me, so I asked a couple more times. Eventually, she told me, 'Well, that's because the body of an animal, whether it's a dog or duck or ostrich horse or monkey, only knows how to make babies of its own kind. A monkey simply doesn't know how to make baby ducks, and when you become a woman, your body just won't know how to make a baby ostrich horse. That's why there are different kinds of animals.')

(Your nanny was actually fairly close to the truth,) Hawk Boy said. (And to make a really long story short here, the reason an animal's body only 'knows' how to make babies just like itself has to do with those really tiny instructions I told you about.)

(That's pretty interesting and everything, but what does that all have to do with why I'm a female Andalite when you all say that I should be a male?) I asked, unthinkingly twitching my tail in an instinctive sign of impatience.

Remember how I said I'm not the best person with words? Well, so far I've kind of proven it by only telling you what was going on _around_ my new Andalite body, and not much about what it was like to _have _an Andalite body. So let's take a moment or two.

The other Animorphs tell me I'm not only as super-talented at body bending as I am at everything else, but that I never have problems with an animal's instincts, which is true. As soon as I feel them appear, I clamp down on the animal's urges and then just consider them.

One of the weirdest things about morphing an intelligent creature to me is that when you do, its mind is basically like a smooth slab of stone, without any memories, experiences, education, or sense of a past carved into it. The very first emotion you get from them is always total confusion as they look and listen around.

The Andalite's mind was the same way. Her instincts were a lot like the horse, part of her always watching and listening for anything that might be a danger to her or the group. When I first looked at Ax and Stubby, their presence made her feel excited, confident, and safe all at once. They were a herd to be part of, companions to interact with and help spot danger.

Her instinctive feelings about Antelope Boy were that while he was still a little young, he was hardly unattractive and looked to be a capable fighter too. A good protector and in time, a choice candidate to form a family unit with, which was somewhat of an embarrassing feeling to me.

Her views on Stubby though, just blew me away, they were so unexpected. And shocking.

She noticed his missing tail right away, and I felt tremors of major concern, of scorn, even of horror pass through her brain. She despised and feared him.

To her, Stubby was a freak, a pathetic joke of a male Andalite. He was a defenseless target which would, sooner rather than later, draw predators to follow and attack the herd or family group, putting all the other members in danger-especially the precious calves. She deeply wanted to either leave him behind or drive him away with a mixture of shame and her tailblade.

I knew the Andalite couldn't help the way she was, but still, it reminded me in too many ways of how my own parents had viewed me, and it made me feel sad. But not too much though.

Because on the positive side, there was also a huge sense of optimism and courage that I felt coming from her mind too. Predators were bad news, but she wasn't really worried when you got down to it. She had her wits, her speed, her agility, her sharp ears, her eyes that could see in all directions, her swift, dangerous tail blade, and a protector in Ax. When she ran, nothing would be able to catch her!

Every new day was one of new hope, new dreams, new opportunities and things to discover, to learn. The joy of discovery and learning was something she enjoyed as much as I enjoy fighting or earthbending.

And like me, the Andalite had guts, would stand up to anything if she needed to. An attitude I approved of.

But anyway, getting back on track here, Hawk Boy replied, (Well, that's because, depending on random chance, those little directions I told you about for how an animal develops determine right away whether it's going to be a 'he' or like you, a 'she.' And since-)

(Since St-I mean Mertil,) I hurriedly corrected, (has instructions that say his body is a guy's, and I took some of them into my own body, I should have a guy Andalite's body too right now. I mean, it's the reason Antelope Boy's horse morph is a girl, right?)

(Precisely,) Ax replied. (The gender of any individual animal acquired normally remains the same when expressed in a morph, regardless of what sexual category the acquirer falls into. But you are an extraordinary exception!)

(Yes,) Mertil agreed in amazement. (An instance of a morph's original gender being either overwhelmed by or linked to an individual's _natural sex chromosomes_ has never been recorded or documented-until now!)

(Chromo-what now? Huh? And what's with all this mentioning of sex people!) I demanded.

(It doesn't really matter,) Hawk Boy said. (And they're just referring to gender, not...well, the other thing. Anyway, looks like you've got an aspect of morphing that's all your own.)

(Sweetness,) I said, delighted and proud and feeling a lot more wonderfully special than I already was. If I'd had a mouth right then, I know I'd have been grinning. (That definitely rules Hawk Boy.)

I began to walk further into the pasture, thoughtfully working my flimsy, seven-fingered hands and moving my bladed tail around, discovering its range of motion as I twisted and extended my awesome stalk eyes in different directions, using them to look at my back, over my back at the fence, up at a fluttering bat whose cries I could kind of make out with my Andalite ears, over my right shoulder at some farm cat hunting along the fence line some distance away and upwind of us. And all without even twitching my head!

Very, very cool.

(Ya know,) I wondered, (all the morphs I've done before this one were naturally female already. I wonder if all the other morphs I do will also be girls because I'm a girl too, or just this Andalite.)

(That is impossible to say,) Stubby said simply as I saw him come up along my left side. (Never has an instance like this been recorded before.)

(Yeah, I know.)

(Although it is a logical assumption that this would hold true for your other morphs of male animals as well,) Antelope Boy added.

(Well, since the bobcat I acquired at the animal refuge on Saturday was male, how about finding out the answer to that question right now?) I said casually, starting to focus back on the idea of my human self.

(There's no need to just yet Toph,) Hawk Boy cut in from above me. (Since you've been looking forward to your chance at this morph all day, why not take the time to enjoy it for a while first, see how it performs?)

(Good plan Hawk Boy,) I agreed. Experiments could wait.

During the past few days, almost from the minute I'd been sent here, I'd become pretty familiar with what deer, and certainly their hooves, looked like through my earthbending.

My Andalite hooves were pretty much the same shape, split into two and covered in horn. Unlike a deer's though, they were broader when compared to my legs, their tracks the size of a cow's.

They were hollow too, and when I lifted up one of my front feet to get a better look at the bottom, I saw a slick, naked wedge of "pink" flesh tucked up inside, shining in the moonlight and covered in tiny, sausage-like bumps.

Ax must've noticed, for then I heard him say, (That is one of the membranes which compresses and absorbs grass as we move about.)

(Cool. Does it happen with every step you take? I know I'm not feeling anything coming up through my legs right now.)

(No,) Mertil replied. (You have to consciously lower it down and generate the needed digestive enzymes to actively feed.)

(Got ya.)

The Andalite wanted to graze. So I let her, simply thinking, (Eat,) as I started into a trot.

It's amazingly weird, feeling something that's basically like the inside of your mouth slide down to press against the grass every time you take a step.

And absorbing it? Now that's even weirder.

It's sort of like putting some honey or cane sugar or porridge on your tongue and feeling, tasting it dissolve as it goes down your gullet, except with the grass it's more fibrous, and going _up_ four throats at once, again and again and again. Like I said, intensely freaky.

But the Andalite didn't mind. To her it was as delicious as smoked sabertooth salmon is to me.

I randomly decided to break into a run through the pasture, with Antelope Boy and Stubby running with me, grazing as they did so.

Like the horse, the Andalite loved to run, feel the sensation of galloping free in open spaces, all four eyes watching. Pretty great, I had to agree.

But there was more to an Andalite body than just running, grazing, and seeing everywhere.

Coming to a stop, I cocked my new tail back and whipped it over my head too swiftly for even my eyes to follow, plunging it into the dirt right in front of me.

(HA HA! Oh man, this tail is awesome!) I crowed in approval. (And so fast too! What a weapon!)

(Ah, but like every weapon, one must undergo practice first to become an effective tailblade fighter,) Ax cautioned, bringing me down a notch or two.

(True,) I agreed, thinking of my students and my sandbending. (Perhaps you could teach me a few things, Antelope Boy,) I proposed.

(It would give me great pleasure,) he replied, turning his stalk eyes towards me as we ran and giving me that strange, subtle way of "smiling" that Andalites have.

(Just try not to get your blade stuck in your target like I did,) Tobias dryly said from above, causing me to laugh a little.

Andalites have an amazing knack for being aware of time, and so I knew that I spent exactly 84 minutes running around like that in Andalite morph. Several times, taking up a position in the forest or the pasture, I ran at the fence and jumped it, just to see if it could be done. It could.

I tested my rather feeble hands and arms by picking up and even carrying stones and sticks and leaves and pieces of bark.

I whipped the air and pierced the earth with my bladed tail, as well as the odd log or standing tree. And yes, I did get the blade stuck in a dead tree Ax had me practice on because I used too much brute force. The less said about that the better in my opinion.

All the while, I couldn't help but think about how weird it was that, from what the others said, this Andalite morph was supposed to be male, but had unexplainably become female like me.

I was kind of two minds about that, you know?

On one hand, the idea of becoming a male _anything_, and especially having the 'guy parts,' was something I found to be majorly creepy and gross.

But on the other, I was actually sorta disappointed that this Andalite body wasn't a male morph.

You see, Hawk Boy and Ax had made it pretty clear that just like Ozai had been for Twinkletoes and Company, Visser Three was Enemy #1 for the Animorphs, especially since he could morph too. The reason he could do that however, was because he was the only Yeerk with an Andalite host.

But if I could _acquire_ that Andalite-Controller somehow after giving him a good pummeling during a battle...we'd be able to trick and confuse the Yeerks on a whole new level!

No chance of doing that now, unfortunately.

After a while, curious, I asked Antelope Boy, (You know, I've been wondering, what's the deal exactly with how you guys have three parts to your names? I mean, I'm guessing your first name is your normal one, and your last is your family one, but what's the middle one for?)

Twisting a stalk eye to look at me better as we cantered along, Ax said, (Actually, among we Andalites, it is the _middle_ portion of the name that signifies something about our familial heritage, although it can also signify a prominent quality of the newborn as well. As for the last part, it refers either to the place where you took your first steps, or a physical feature associated with that place. Mine for example, comes from a creek in front of my family's home.)

(Got ya. Now in my language, my own last name, Beifong, means 'from the north,' while my first means 'supported lotus.')

(What a delightful choice for a first name!) Mertil said approvingly. (Both Gafinilan and I find lotuses to be among the loveliest of all Earthly flowers.)

(Uh, thanks.)

(Yes,) Antelope Boy distractedly agreed. (When we beat the Yeerks, we must make certain to import some to the home world to grace our ponds.)

(Is there something on your mind, Ax-man?) Hawk Boy asked perceptively from his perch on a boulder in the field.

Ax must've said something in private to him and Mertil at once, because then Tobias nodded, saying (That's an awesome idea Ax. Go for it.)

Mertil stopped in reaction to whatever Ax must've proposed, shifting slightly and fidgeting with his fingers as he said, (Yes, I agree it is a fitting gesture Aximili, but since I am the eldest true Andalite here, it will be my responsibility to perform the ritual-and how can I carry it out without a tail blade?)

(I shall fill in for you during the appropriate portion,) Ax assured him.

(Hello? Ritual? What now?)

(Whenever a calf is born or adopted in our society,) Mertil explained, (the eldest member of the immediate family-and they may be male or female-performs a ritual of blessing and welcome for them.)

I realized what he meant right away. (And you want to perform it for me, right.)

(Yep,) Tobias said. (Consider yourself about to be ceremonially adopted Toph.)

(Wow guys,) I said, touched in all three of my Andalite hearts. (That's really sweet of you to do. I think it's been a while since I've had to use crawling as a way of getting around though.)

(That does not matter,) Antelope Boy replied. (And since this is not only the first time you have taken on an Andalite form, but your phenotype has quite unexpectedly become female-which makes it an entirely new individual-one could compare it to a birth in a way.)

(Makes sense. All right, let's do this then,) I said.

I stood still, tail casually arched over my back as Mertil came up to me, Antelope Boy at his right side. Hawk Boy glided over and landed a few feet to my left.

(As fish welcome a new member into their school, and birds welcome a new member into the flock,) Stubby intoned as he lightly placed a hand on each of my shoulders, (so we gather to welcome and accept a new life, a new companion to run alongside us.)

He then lightly kicked out with a front hoof and struck mine, making a hollow knocking sound that rang in the night air. (May your hooves run swiftly and your legs never stumble.)

At that point, he turned his stalk eyes toward Antelope Boy, who then extended his blade and touched it to my own, saying on Stubby's behalf, (May your blade stay sharp and drive your foes before you.) Yeah, I liked that part a lot. Why do you ask?

Mertil took over again, and leaned forward to wrap his eyestalks around mine as I stood, like two vines wrapping around each other. (May your eyes see like the _afreet_ bird's, always gazing upon beauty, wonders, and good friends.)

He then stepped back as he reached out with his right hand and pressed it against my chest, feeling my triple heartbeats. (May your hearts beat the song and joy of your spirit, and one day be joined with those of a calf that grows in your womb, linked with them until your last breath.)

I really wasn't sure what to think about that last part. While I was pretty much just fine living on my own in Yu Dao, and managing my metalbending academy successfully enough, fourteen was rather young to even start thinking about having babies, or just getting married in general, in my opinion.

Not that I hadn't already had eager suitors showing up of course, tripping all over themselves as they tried to put the moves on me, the war hero, greatest earthbender of all time, inventor of metalbending, headmistress of an academy, close friend and teacher of the Avatar himself, and oh yeah, heir to the Beifong fortune.

I'd just snort and tell them I had no time for a boyfriend, so they could go and just piss off. That's assuming I was in a good mood, of course.

_I wonder what you would do if Marco told you __he'd__ like to be your boyfriend and make babies with you!?_ a stupid little part of me giggled.

_Shut up_, I snapped at it. _Like I'll ever want to make a baby with anyone._

(On this night,) Stubby went on, (we bestow upon you, girl-child of Lao and Poppy, your name and its power. Toph, after the delicate beauty of the lotus flower. Nifacitau, or stone splitter. And in tribute to this place where you take your first steps as an Andalite, California.)

(For the one who is orphaned,) he finished, (there is always a family waiting to soothe their hearts. For the one who is friendless, there is always a _shorm_ waiting to meet and know them. And for the one who yearns for love, there is always a partner waiting to intertwine their tail with his or hers. So it is in this spirit that we invite you to walk with us always, however far we may roam. Now we take our first steps together, Toph-Nifacitau-California.)

Something melted inside of me then as Stubby and Ax turned together to face the moon, along with Tobias, and I did as well. We, I, took exactly 14 steps through the grass, all four eyes focused on the amazing disc that was the moon as we walked together as a herd. It seemed to cover all of us in silver, one of the first colors I ever knew.

* * *

After the adoption ritual was complete, Mertil said, (It has been a pleasure to meet you and get to know you Toph. However, I can feel my _edra's_ eagerness and anxiety for me to return home to him, so I must soon go.)

(It was cool to meet you too, Mertil,) I replied, balling up a weak Andalite fist and socking him in the chest.

(Ow!) Stubby yelped, stumbling back and blinking his stalk eyes ((these facial movements are so distracting!)) in surprise. (What was the meaning of such a needlessly aggressive action earth shifter?!) he demanded.

(Eh, it's just my way of showing I like you,) I told him.

(I see,) he said doubtfully.

(Anyway, thanks again for coming over to let me acquire you,) I said. (And...for that birth/adoption ritual you did just now.)

(You are welcome, Toph-Nifacitau-California,) he said formally, doing that smiling thing with his eyes. (But before I leave, I would be interested to see if the sex-linked change you displayed with my DNA-_whatever that is_-will apply to any additional species you morph.)

(Like the bobcat. Okay then,) I agreed. (I've spent enough time in this body anyway.)

I took the time to enjoy one last look around through all four of my eyes in every direction. Then I focused on what I truly was.

I made my hind pair of legs change first. My Andalite ankles and foot bones widened and suddenly folded underneath me with a crackling sound, causing me to have to struggle for balance as the hollow hooves and dewclaws softened and grew flatter, broader, to become human feet and toes again. Muscles expanded on my lower legs, and I felt the bump of bone grow on each ankle as the tubes of flesh that served as throats sealed up and disappeared.

I heard a squelching, shifting sound as my guts moved and changed, my massive plant-eater belly shrinking, getting smaller.

I felt my true throat start to form somewhere down inside me, rising up from my stomach until it reached my face, which split open in a slash underneath my nose. There was an itching feeling as my jaws reformed and pebble like teeth began to regrow.

I made my hands and arms morph so that they were strong and sturdy again, able to bear my weight if and when I fell forward after losing the front pair of legs.

And when the upper part of me did tumble forward, my spine giving this horrifying _crack_ as it became stiff again, I was sure glad I'd done that, even if I practically got the wind knocked out of me anyway.

My "purple" fur all melted back into my skin and my weird leotard, except for the stuff on my scalp, which turned black and grew longer, falling down my back as I tried to get into a squatting position.

When I could stand up on my own two feet again, able to feel and bend the earth once more, I stopped the morph for a bit, just to show how much I ruled at it.

I still had a complete Andalite tail, blade arching over my head, and while my main eyes were now blind, I could still see everyone with the stalk eyes that grew out of my hair, grinning in pride. Reaching up, I scratched my belly, just to give everyone a good look at how my hands now had two extra fingers.

"Yeah, I know I'm awesome," I agreed with a laugh.

Then I finished demorphing, going totally blind again as my tail withered away.

After catching my breath for a bit, I sent vibrations through the dirt just to check on where my space metal bracelet was. Still where I'd set it down in the field. Good.

I've gotta admit, I was looking forward to my first cat morph, to experiencing all that fluid grace and power, to be able to effortlessly pounce and climb.

I concentrated on Zeke, on how his muscles had felt under my hand, on the way he'd walked when brought out on the leash, the feel of his claws when he'd playfully swatted or grabbed us.

There was a creaking, tugging sound as my face kind of puffed out then, becoming a short, blocky muzzle. My ears slid up each side of my head even as it got flatter, turning triangle-shaped and pointed.

I felt an intense itching inside and around my mouth as long, sensitive whiskers grew out of my face, my eyebrows, and all four of my eyeteeth became long, sharp spikes. Perfect for killing. My front teeth became smaller and narrower, but pretty much stayed the same.

A hunter needs weapons to kill. And a butcher needs tools to chop up meat.

Three of my flat back teeth narrowed and became jagged, slicing blades to do just that as the rest disappeared, and powerful muscles formed around my cheeks as my eyes turned into the cat's.

Now I felt fur, soft and sleek and fluffy, grow all over my head and face, forming stiff black tufts at the tips of my ears and flaring from my cat cheeks, then down over my body, like a wave. My arms became shorter and thicker, and there was a sort of tugging feeling as my thumbs were pulled up to my wrists.

I was shrinking too, feeling the ground coming up toward me.

My knees and ankles shifted, and I fell forward into the grass, on hands that were shrinking, shortening into padded paws as my ears already began twitching, listening for sounds. Claws, curved and needle-sharp, replaced my nails, as I felt leathery flesh grow on my palms and toes.

(I think I'm going to take to the air, just in case,) I heard Hawk Boy mutter. I couldn't blame him. He's nearly gotten killed by a bobcat before.

My spine grew out from my butt to form a short, fleshy whip of a tail, but not too much before it stopped and became covered with fur.

My boobs had already disappeared, and it was only when I felt the four nipples grow on my belly that I realized what'd just happened with my Andalite morph was not a fluke.

(Well guys, it looks like my male bobcat morph has turned female too,) I said in mind-talk. (So it's not just a special case with the Andalite.)

(This shall surely be one for the science journals,) I heard Stubby say to Ax.

I wasn't really paying all that much attention though. I was taking in the bobcat's senses instead as my legs and feet finished changing.

As amazing as her range of vision had been, the Andalite's sight had only been a little better on this moonlight night then the human eyes I'd tried out.

But the bobcat's was amazing! It made the meadow just light up like the owl's eyes had. It saw very, very well, especially when it came to telling shapes apart, noticing motion, and how far away something was.

When a spider walked among the grass just three chi off to my left, I noticed it right away.

I always enjoy being able to see in a morph, any morph. Still, there are some sets of eyes I like better than others. This was one of them. Weirdly though, I couldn't see things close to my face very well.

The bobcat's hearing was excellent, not as good as my bat morph, but a lot better than my black fox one-and the fox's had been pretty decent already. I'd hear a sound behind me or coming from off to my side, and right away, one of my ears would turn to catch it. They didn't miss a single little rustle.

On the other hand, her sense of smell wasn't as good as the fox's had been. Still better than a person's though. All the other Animorphs agree with me that whenever you morph another mammal, human words, whether spoken in their English or my own language, just aren't enough to describe the richness, the variety of smells that the animal's nose picks up. (For instance, I once had to describe an interesting scent I smelled in wolf morph to Hawk Boy as being a lot like the track of a rattlesnake sneaking up on a walking chipmunk on a humid day, with a turkey passing by two hours later.)

And then the bobcat's mind, its instincts, rose up to join mine.

Confidence. That's what I mostly felt coming from her. The bobcat was tough, a sturdy mass of fast, coiled muscle and fangs and swiping claws. And you'd better believe she knew it. Just like me.

Oh, there were enemies to watch out for of course. Wolves, bears, cougars, other bobcats (especially males) maybe coyotes or golden eagles.

But there weren't any here right now.

There was also this strong urge to hunt, to look for and track prey, stalk it until you got close enough. Then you burst out of the brush like a runaway ostrich horse, like an arrow leaving a bow, pouncing on the prey or slapping it out of the air with your hooked claws before breaking its neck with your teeth.

The bobcat noticed Antelope Boy and Stubby right away of course. They looked somewhat like deer-possible prey if you picked the right sized one and had the guts and strength to overpower it-but looked and smelt super weird, and one had a scary-looking weapon on its tail too.

It all made her badly want to head for the hills, if you catch my drift. But I'd already gained control by then, walking up to the Andalites and rolling on my back in the grass, telling them, (As you can see, here's the proof that I'm not a guy this time either.)

(Extraordinary,) Mertil said simply, blinking his stalk eyes as I stood back up again.

(Well, I guess we've all gotta be heading home then,) I said as I showed my bobcat fangs in a yawn.

(I certainly do,) Stubby said.

(I must admit to feeling fatigue myself,) Ax chimed in.

(Me too,) Hawk Boy agreed. (We'll have to finish putting the rest of your stuff away later, okay Toph?)

(That's fine.)

Ax was nice enough to pick up my new clothes before he and Mertil turned around and galloped back toward the fence line. I jogged after them, stopping to pick up my meteor bracelet and "ponytail holder" in my bobcat teeth from where they lay in the grass before moving on.

They cleared the top strand of wire easily of course, while I smoothly leapt to the top of one of the fence posts and stayed there for a moment or two before leaping off. Oma, what balance this bobcat body had!

As I followed both Andalites through the woods back to the cave, Hawk Boy flying overhead, I kept hearing sounds that the bobcat recognized as prey. Mice moving through the fallen leaves. Rabbits grazing or hopping around. Squirrels twitching and breathing in their nests up in the trees. Birds roosting in the branches.

I also kept feeling her powerful desire to check them out, to stalk and hunt and eat. And it started to tempt and excite me, Toph, too.

While I seriously enjoy fighting and meat, Snoozles enjoys going out and turning animals and fish _into_ meat, if ya know what I mean. Not that he probably had much choice of course, growing up in a frozen wasteland where you _need_ to hunt to live.

But never for sport of course. That was just plain wrong.

Still, Sokka's told me before that yeah, just like I get a rush from fighting, he gets a thrill out of stalking and taking down game. It grips you, makes you feel so aware and alive as you stalk it. And when you finally do kill the animal, there's this blast of joy and satisfaction as you understand that now you've won, earned your food the honest way.

Tapped into the bobcat's predator desires, I totally understood him then. And I decided that even though I wasn't stuck in a morph like Hawk Boy, thank Tu Gong, I would become the second Animorph who also killed for their meals, even if only now and again.

Was it fair for me, a blind girl, to use my morphing powers to see and chase down animals I'd have little chance of catching in my natural body? Probably not.

Did I really need to hunt for my meat at all when I had Olivia's to go to whenever I was hungry now? Again, probably not.

But I also figured, there might be times when I couldn't go to the Chee's place for a hot meal. Maybe the Yeerks would be close by for some reason or other. I might have to keep away so they didn't suspect something. And sometimes there would be days when I might not feel like taking the effort to fly all the way over there.

Besides, I just liked the idea of chasing and killing and eating things in general.

As I walked over a fallen log, my bobcat nose smelt that a squirrel had run across it a few hours before.

(You know,) I "said" just to Tobias, (I just smelt where a squirrel has been, and now the bobcat's actually kind of wishing it was still nearby, so she can hunt it. But the crazy thing is, I just acquired a squirrel at Cassie's last morning! It's too weird!)

(Tell me about it,) Hawk Boy replied. (I'm honestly amazed that none of us have ended up in the nuthouse yet from all this. Hell, sometimes I wonder if I'm not sitting in a padded room in some asylum already, with a dude who seriously thinks werewolves are going to come kill him in his sleep or that space dragons are slowly poisoning everyone with their vapors for my neighbor, and I just haven't come around to realizing it yet.)

(Well, this all seems pretty real to me, and I'm thinking it's not really possible for two crazy people to experience the exact same things. But anyway, I'm wondering, how does squirrel taste?)

(If you mean as a human, I don't really know. But I've heard it tastes a lot like roast chicken when cooked. As a hawk though...I mostly just taste the salt in the blood and the fat in the meat.)

(I sure like chicken.)

We were all heading back home, the four of us.

Still, that didn't stop me from wanting to find out a bit more about what this bobcat body could do.

When I saw a nice tall maple tree nearby as I trotted along on my soft cat paws, I couldn't help myself anymore.

(Hold up guys,) I told them as I eagerly ran up to the tree and set my bracelet and ponytail holder down.

(What are you doing Toph?) Ax asked in puzzlement as he and Mertil stopped. (Why are you choosing to come to a halt for no obvious reason?)

(I'll show you the reason Antelope Boy,) I told him. (And it's because I want to test out this bobcat body a bit more fully while I'm still in it.)

I sat down and looked up into the tree's branches, so clear and obvious to the bobcat's sensitive eyes as the stars twinkled between them. In the fork between two of them, way up high, was a good-sized bird's nest made of sticks.

_That looks interesting,_ I told the bobcat. _How about we climb up and check it out?_

The bobcat's mind liked that idea.

So as I prepared to jump, I simply told it, _Then climb._

I leapt! Aw man, you can't understand what it's like, to build up and release all that coiled power in one spring!

I sprung up and dug my claws into the bark to keep myself in place, then lunged forward again.

That bobcat knew her way up a tree like I knew my way through the mountains behind my metalbending academy. Seriously. She understood trees, and was as just at home in their branches as she was on the ground.

I heard bits of bark shower down as the bobcat practically _flew_ up the trunk, never slipping or hesitating or having any doubts at all. I was at the first major fork in the tree before I knew it, at least four paces above the ground.

(Oh yeah! This is too sweet! Man, can this kitty climb!) I whooped in excitement.

And remember how I said the bobcat had an amazing sense of balance?

Well, she hardly even paused before looking back up at the old nest and leaping onto the boughs, then the branches, to get closer to it. I never seriously slipped even once. It was unreal.

And I got this impression from the bobcat that even if we _did_ slip and fall from the branch, so what? We'd just simply either grab another branch on the way down or stick a perfect landing on all four of our padded paws. In fact, if a rabbit, rat, or any other prey happened to come along right now, the bobcat wouldn't give a second thought about rushing down through the branches and actually _jumping_ right out of the tree to catch it!

(Taking a detour to check out that old crow's nest, I see,) Hawk Boy commented from another tree.

(So those are the birds that made this then.)

(Yep, the punks of the avian world.)

Carefully, I made my way to where the nest was and stepped onto it, curiously sniffing. I smelt old feathers and the sour smell of bird, bits of eggshell and down. All of it was fascinating to the bobcat's mind, but the chicks had obviously left it weeks ago.

It was time to head back down. Still, I took a few moments to just enjoy looking around as I stood in the nest, amazed that I was so far off the ground, that I'd climbed a tree for the first time ever in my life, that I was standing here among the branches, that I could see this view at all.

I looked down at Stubby and Ax through the branches, at the leaves and logs at the ground.

(Toph, aren't you going to come down and proceed traveling back to your dwelling with us?) Antelope Boy wondered.

(I'm coming Ax,) I sighed as I turned and began to make my way down through the branches, placing one paw in front of the other.

Getting down through the branches wasn't all that hard.

It was coming down the trunk, fighting gravity all the way, that was _really_ tricky. To get back on the ground, I kinda had to resort to pretty much half-shimmying and half-falling at once, butt end first. Not one of my more graceful moments.

I shook myself off, and we continued on our way.

When we got back to "my" ravine, Antelope Boy and Stubby used the ramp I'd made before leaving to get to the bottom. But I simply jumped down, landing gracefully in the grass and dirt.

I bent my body out of the bobcat's, teeth and claws and fur all melting away as I became able to stand up again. Then I put my bracelet back on, and my hair back in its ponytail as I said bye-bye to Stubby and thanked him one last time for coming over.

Before he galloped off for home with Erek, he asked me if I could crack a rock for him with my bending, so he could see it done for himself, and also bring a couple pieces of it back for his roommate/comrade.

I was happy to do him the favor, and pulled down the exit ramp I'd made for him as a further display of my talents as well.

Ax handed over my clothes, and I pulled my warm "sweatpants" back on. He said he'd see me tomorrow maybe, and headed off to his own home.

Then it was just me and Tobias left.

He morphed a humanlike creature called a chimpanzee to put some more wood on the fire to keep us warm. Then, still in chimpanzee morph, he decided to entertain me by telling me a story about an ugly, hairy, long-nosed, hunchbacked humanlike creature called a troll who lived under a bridge, and three billy goat brothers who wanted to cross it. I totally loved the part where the biggest brother Gruff totally whupped the troll's butt! I mean, he jabbed out the troll's _eyes_ with his horns and head-butted him into a raging river for Shu's sake! Tell me that's not just awesomely hardcore!

Before I'd left Yzark's home and gotten back into that horrible car machine, she'd told me that each house in this world had something called an "address," a combination of numbers and words that helped you find them. Hers was 4252 Carver Drive.

Since I can't read numbers, I asked Hawk Boy if he could help me find the place tomorrow morning, so I could go there for breakfast. He said it would be no problem, but it would be safest if I came along in a morph with wings.

That was fine with me. Any day you get to fly is instantly a good day.

After that, he morphed back to hawk, flew up to the ledge I'd made for him, and settled down to sleep.

I pulled my blanket over me, back to the fire, and then fell asleep too.

I had some of the weirdest, craziest dreams of my life that night.

* * *

**Next chapter will see, at last, some bloodletting...**

**A Chinese pace is about six feet in length. **

**Am I the only one who thinks Toph would really enjoy the more violent fairy tales?**


	20. Sunday Night Interlude

**This is just a small, minor interlude I decided to put up for you guys. Here we get a better look into what exactly Ax thinks of all this bending stuff, and exactly what Toph's dreams after her first day of seeing in color involved. Enjoy, and hopefully review.**

* * *

Carefully, my stomach full from the evening's grazing, I folded my legs underneath my body and laid down in my scoop, allowing my tail to form a loose curve around them as I shut my main eyes.

But I did not allow myself to sleep fully. Not yet.

As technologically advanced apex predators that have relied on natural and later, manufactured dwellings throughout their history to provide protection against inclement weather, large carnivores, and hostile bands of humans, humans have evolved to sleep deeply and for long periods of time each night.

We Andalites however, sleep much more lightly and less often, for about four to five earthly hours every earthly day, a consequence of our evolutionary past as a prey species. And while we'd eliminated all large terrestrial predators from our planet long, long ago, the strange forest I now called home contained many formidable alien carnivores that I needed to be wary of and alert for whenever asleep. I find the pack-hunting creatures called coyotes and wolves, as well as free-roaming dogs to be of particular concern.

Besides, as _artsiths_ we are taught that it is beneficial for a warrior's mind and spirit to spend some time silently contemplating your day's experiences before the night's sleep.

Naturally, the subject of my considerations was Toph, the curious earthshifter whom the velcol and I had made one of our own this night. Toph-Nifacitau-California. It suited her, I thought.

During our travels and exploration of the galaxy humans call The Milky Way, we Andalites have encountered many strange and wonderful life forms, whether humble or sentient, many possessing impressive skills and abilities.

And as I told the other Animorphs on the afternoon Tobias discovered Toph, some of those lifeforms have been found to possess psychokinetic abilities, such as the rotund, fire-generating Luminar Visser Three once morphed to engage us in battle. There is also the _Okagotol_, a fast-running grazer which is somewhat like a pale yellow, pig-sized Earthly jackrabbit in appearance, with both pairs of its front and back legs having been fused together to effectively form two large, broad feet for running. While they mostly eat grass and fernlike plants, they relish fruit as well, and have been seen to psychokinetically cause ripe fruit which is out of their reach to fall to the ground simply by staring up at it.

Even more impressively, while an _okagotol_ primarily relies on speed and agility to escape from its predators, they've been observed to inexplicably generate bright flashes of electrically charged light whenever pursued closely, temporarily dazzling and incapacitating their attacker. Since dissections of naturally deceased specimens have failed to find any evidence of either chemicals or symbiotes that can generate bioluminescence or any organic structure capable of generating these electrical discharges, one can conclude that this defense mechanism is psychically generated.

The final example that comes immediately to my mind of a psychokinetic lifeform is a furry, semi-aquatic predator about the size of a domestic cat called a _marfklee_. Dark green in color, somewhat like an earthly mink in their form and habits, but with stronger jaws and more flexible, squirrel-like hands, they've been seen to capture flying creatures floating on the surface and aquatic prey which is too fast for them to chase down by normal means by psychokinetically coating them in a sheath of ice, rendering it helpless. _Marfklee_ also use this ability to hobble their own predators and force hidden prey out of underwater crevices and sunken logs.

But all of these creatures are nonsentient, with limited awareness.

The fact that the Ellimist not only knew of, but had sent us a member of a psychokinetic species which _did_ clearly possess a high degree of intelligence and had a reasonably advanced-if still relatively primitive-civilization was a humbling reminder of the extent of his own awareness, and how much even my people still had to learn about the universe.

And then there was her form to puzzle over.

Like human biologists, we Andalites have long been familiar with the concept of convergent evolution, in which the behavior and morphology of two different species is molded by similar selective pressures to closely parallel each other regardless of their genetic differences.

We've documented it on our own planet, on other planets, and even between species living on different planets.

But when it comes to intelligent races, I'd never seen it happen so remarkably closely as between humans and Toph's kind.

With the exception of her green eyes, she could easily pass for a member of the largest of all human ethnic groups, even down to her native language. (Did you know that according to the World Almanac, an estimated 20 percent of all human beings are Han Chinese?)

Her broad, strong shoulders and opposable thumbs indicated that presumably, like humans, her species evolved from tree-dwelling apes which used their arms to swing and pull themselves from branch to branch. Later on, when they adapted to a ground-dwelling lifestyle, those physical features continued to serve them well as bipedal tool users.

The presence of hair, a pair of still-developing spherical milk glands, and an elevated body temperature signified that like my human friends, she was a mammal, possessing an endothermic metabolism and the ability to, when she became reproductively and socially mature, bear live offspring and nurse them. (Female Andalites do not produce milk for their calves, since like the newly hatched Earth birds called turkeys or ducks we can feed ourselves within minutes of birth. Indeed, Tobias and I once had the pleasure of witnessing a clutch of turkey chicks hatching and leaving their nest shortly after one spring when their mother chose to make a nest fairly close to my scoop. But that is a story for another time.)

But then some strange biological event, one somehow associated both with genetics and spiritual energies, had occurred to cause certain members of Toph's species to gain the ability to generate and manipulate what early civilized humans called the four "classic" elements, one which was divided along racial and geographic lines.

According to Toph, her own race had initially learned and gained the power to shift the earth from great blind creatures she called badgermoles, which had then been inherited through the generations. But, I wondered, how had these badgermoles come by this ability themselves? And how could Oma and Shu have been granted it?

I can only presume that they did so through assiduously preparing and training their subconscious minds to a point where they were fully receptive to those of any willing badgermoles, and could unite with theirs to facilitate the transfer of subliminal information.

I also suspect that as with morphing technology, which is heavily dependent on manipulation of and storage in Z-space, a similar process was involved in passing the genetic information which presumably codes for earthbending from the badgermoles to the chromosomes of these first humanoid earthbenders. In short, it was acquired through Z-space channels!

Of course though, that still leaves the question of how the badgermoles themselves developed this incredible ability. And I had to admit that there my knowledge was currently far too incomplete for any reasonable speculations.

Even more extraordinary, during every generation there was only one individual, rotating among the four primary cultures and both sexes with each incarnation, who possessed the ability to manipulate all four elements. The Avatar, Toph called them, a sort of living demigod who was claimed to be the spiritual essence and mediator of the planet itself.

I had trouble making sense of this. If the Avatar had the capacity to manipulate multiple elements, wouldn't it stand to reason that other individuals of Toph's species would at least occasionally be born with the same ability? One would surmise that at the very least, the same trait would appear in an Avatar's immediate descendants.

But Toph had been clear that all other benders were restricted to manipulating only a single element, and if there were exceptions, she certainly hadn't heard of them.

There were however, subcategories of bending, such as the metalbending she'd claimed to have invented, and the disturbing practice of bloodbending she'd told us about, a discipline of waterbending.

Finally, there was this night's incredible, never previously documented instance of how her female gender had continued to be manifested in every animal she morphed, even ones where the individual should've been male!

I could not make sense of it, how it could be possible for her own sexual chromosomes to alter and supersede those of a male animal.

However, I also reminded myself that the morphing technology had been developed, and until my brother had given it to my companions, utilized exclusively by my people. Predictions about how the physiology of an entirely different species would respond to or affect the use of this technology can only be shaky at best.

And the Ellimist knows that ever since the humans rescued me from the remains of the Dome Ship, I have seen and experienced many things that I would've formerly believed to be utter impossibilities. Yet they occurred anyway.

I shook my head and snorted in a resigned gesture. So much about her was entirely unexpected, so new, so puzzling and singular-so strange. What I wouldn't give to spend a day on her home planet, find out more about her society and these "benders!"

But I was not there. She was here though, and on our side.

She was a welcome and powerful ally, and I knew that if she'd helped defeat one army that was intent on conquest already, then she was equally capable of striking powerful blows against the Yeerks as well.

Yes, just like she could do to the earth itself, I knew Toph would make the Yeerks tremble...

With that gratifying thought in my head, I finally allowed sleep to overwhelm me.

* * *

During that Sunday night, Toph dreamt several times. In one, she dreamt of opening her eyes to be greeted by the customary blackness.

But then, slowly, unstoppably, the blackness began to slide away from the center of her field of vision, revealing the detailed, black and white and gray shapes of buildings and trees and grass and fences.

As she watched, once the blackness was completely gone, the mysterious, mind-blowing richness of color began to infuse the scene from the bottom up, splendid and vivid.

The unfamiliarity of it all made her wake up in confusion, blinking blindly as she listened to the gentle crackle of the flames.

Later on, she dreamt that she was shifting, changing, legs growing out from the base of her chest, purple fur sweeping across her body as her spine became a tail and her feet hardened into hooves and stalk eyes sprouted from her skull.

Mindy and Daniel were there, watching and grinning in amazement, saying "You are just too cool Zhenzhu! We've never known anybody who could turn into an Andalite before!"

Ax was there too, holding their hands and erecting his eyestalks in amazement.

Later, she dreamt of being a horse, wandering and trotting around in the Yeerk Pool, the dark, vast, as yet unvisited netherworld of despair that she'd sensed beneath her feet in the mall parking lot. She couldn't see, couldn't use her earthbending to navigate her world. All she could rely on was sounds and smells.

Both people and weird creatures screamed and growled and cried and hissed in helpless fury and anguish. Many begged for her to come help them, allow them to ride on her back to safety and freedom.

But whenever Toph tried, either the pool would be in the way or the enslaved people, and things that were like two-legged crosses between big men and komodo-rhinos covered in knives, would force her to retreat, slashing and slinging fire from their hands and feet.

Then she heard sounds of battle, of roaring as a wild, fierce creature-a bear like the Earth King's pet?-began to fight against the Yeerk slave masters, and Toph began to run towards the sound without even pausing. She didn't know who it was or why they were here, but she did know that the bear-for that's what it was-wouldn't, couldn't be able to do this alone, and needed her help bad.

Toph heard one of the weird, bladed creatures rush out to try to block her path.

"_Chink_," it spat hatefully at her.

Enraged, Toph reared up and kicked into the darkness, smashing into the vaguely sensed creature's face with her front hooves.

(Consider yourself lucky,) she fumed while she ran past, (that Rachel is still being kept busy over there, instead of right here where she could help me kick your intolerant ass!)

Wait. Rachel? Huh!

And with that, Toph was jolted awake in perplexity once more.

The last dream of her night was far more comforting and peaceful. In it, she could smell all types of wonderful exotic scents. She was seated at a table, seeing in gorgeous color all sorts of appealing, aromatic foods and beverages laid out in front of her, each one more delicious and flavorful than the last.

Around her, touching her, were the other Animorphs and Yzark, welcoming and supporting and just plain kind.

In the dream, Toph happily ate of the exotic dainties until her belly ballooned like that of a pregnant woman.

And it was so reassuring to have the others there, to know that she was one of them and would never be alone.

* * *

**The Markfee and Okagotol are entirely my own creations. As for whether Toph's dreams involve any type of possible foreshadowing, I guess only time will tell! Or it could simply be her brain dealing with crazy new sensory input. :)**


	21. Chapter 21

**Here's a chapter where we start to work toward some action with the Yeerks at last!**

* * *

**Tobias**.

As a bird of prey, I know a few things by now about where thermals are likely to form. Some of the best places, especially in the morning, are over paved roads. The blacktop absorbs heat quickly, faster than the ground around it, and some of it seeps back into the air overhead.

So I sometimes follow roads to give myself a boost while flying, soaring in the same general direction.

But there was another, less dignified reason why I was cruising at about a quarter-mile above the highway.

I was searching for a roadkill breakfast.

You might find the idea of eating carrion disgusting, but a hawk doesn't. As far as it's concerned, meat is meat, and it's no less noble to tear it from a carcass buzzing with flies than from a fresh kill. More noble probably, since scavenging requires less energy.

Besides, I had to act as Toph's "guide bird" this morning to lead her to Olivia's for her own breakfast, and I didn't want to keep her waiting for too long.

So I lazily circled and glided in the sky, scanning the shoulders and meridians for the latest victims of the cars which zipped back and forth below me.

I noticed the sprawled body of a feral pig first. A young sow, already being picked at by a crow and a pair of ravens, and it looked like a coyote had been eating at her too. Not exactly my idea of welcome dining companions, and anyway, way too big to just snatch up.

A squished raccoon. Also too big.

The California ground squirrel I noticed though, its head neatly pancaked by a tire, was perfect.

I tilted my body to spill air from my wings and descended. When there was enough of a space between the cars for me to do it safely, I swooped down, extended my wings to slow myself, flung my talons in front of me, and plucked the ground squirrel from the tarmac before springing back up into the air in one swift motion as I flapped to regain altitude.

I carried my prize to a conveniently located oak tree nearby and started in, ripping and twisting at the soft flesh behind the squirrel's shoulder with my hooked beak.

I'd be lying if some part of my human self wasn't embarrassed and disgusted, knowing that I was eating roadkill. But I reminded myself that I was in a hurry, that there was a drought, and that my hawk body didn't give a crap.

When I was finished, well-fed and my hawk mind satisfied, I headed back to Toph's ravine.

She was already outside when I came within view. To my embarrassment, she was "using" the latrine she'd made at that moment, and I quickly decided to focus my attention on two turkey vultures soaring about a half-mile away, watching them casually watch me as they tilted back and forth in the air. They might be ugly as sin, but vultures are actually pretty decent birds. They always show me respect, don't harm anything, and are nothing but peaceful and calm. Often they'll even let me fly among them, which is nice.

It was only when I heard her begin to walk toward the creek that I focused my attention back to her.

(Hey there Toph,) I said as I came in for a landing on a nearby log.

"Oh, hey Hawk Boy," she replied, sightlessly glancing in my general direction before turning and spitting off to her right. "Found something furry to tear apart for breakfast I'm guessing?"

(Yep,) I said as I braked and gripped the log with my talons. (Ground squirrel served on a bed of asphalt,) I said jokingly.

"How tasty," she said dryly.

I ignored that. (You ready to go bird and have me lead you to some breakfast of your own at Olivia's?)

"Sure am. But just gimme a second." After kneeling and taking a deep drink from the stream, holding her lengthy ponytail aside with one hand, Toph went back into the cave and stripped down to her new plum purple leotard while I had a drink myself, then flew up to perch on one of a gray pine's lower branches.

Before she snuffed out the fire by bending some dirt over it, I could see the scads of stone pegs and ledges she'd bent out of the cave's walls last night, draped and piled with just some of the shirts and skirts and pants and just general girl's accessories she'd brought back from the mall in its flickering light, as well as the bags of cedar shavings and mothballs placed among them to deter any clothes moths and carpet beetles that might try to nibble at their fabric.

Ax and I in our human morphs had opened quite a few packages and taken off just as many labels, which had either been burnt or gone deep down the garbage shaft. Took a while, I'll admit. But it looked a lot more like a proper home now.

After walking back out of "her" cave, I watched from my branch as she muttered, "Can't risk having someone discovering this while I'm away," and turned back to face it, hair hanging down her back as she held out her arms, palms held up, fingers crooked. Then she used her bending to pull up a great slab of rock, seamlessly sealing the entrance shut with a great grinding sound like the cave in the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

(Close Sesame,) I muttered offhandedly to myself.

"Well, time to grow some wings then," she commented before she began to change.

When most of us morph, it's a disorganized process, like something out of a horror flick.

Both Cassie and Toph though, can actually make it seem downright elegant.

First, she began to shrink.

As she did, the black of her disappearing hair seemed to not just melt into her shoulders and nape and back, but spread all over her body, like ink through a paper towel.

Her teeth disappeared into her gums, and the skin around her nose and mouth hardened, then stretched out with a horrid grinding, crackling sound to become a deep, stout beak, very slightly hooked at the tip and as black as the feathers peeling up from her skin and leotard.

She was becoming a raven.

Her breastbone burst out, and huge muscles expanded from her chest as her eyes turned a deep silver. The bones of her fingers shot out, lengthened, fused together as they began to form wings and enormous feathers sprouted from the trailing edge.

For a few moments, she halted the morph, her appearance that of an anthropomorphic, feathered gargoyle a little under three feet in height, her forelimbs malformed crosses between bird wings and human hands. She looked like a smaller version of that crow dude with the sickle you see on the cover of older copies of Stephen King's The Stand, except she wasn't wearing clothes, was tilted forward, and already had two-thirds of the way grown feathers over most of her wings and tail. Amazingly, there was still enough flexibility in her mutated hands that she probably could've clumsily held and clutched large objects if she felt like it, like a bear does with its paws.

Tilting her huge raven head back and forth as she looked up at me, she confidently asked, (Well, how do I look Hawk Boy?) She was most definitely pleased that she had the control to do things like this in mid-morph.

(Positively satanic,) I replied. (If I was a Controller, I'd take one look at you and run in the other direction.)

She laughed inside my head. (You sure know how to flatter me.)

She finished the morph, human legs withering away to become the scaly, thin yet powerful ones of the raven.

For a little while she just stood there on the gravel, blinking and cocking her head as she looked around and took a few little hops.

(Toph? How ya doing?)

(Whoa,) she said in amazement, taking it all in.

(Yeah,) I agreed, thinking I understood. Human eyes can see an impressive range of colors, don't get me wrong, but the eyes of most diurnal birds can see even more, including shades that ours can't make out. And of course, a bird's tend to capture so much more detail. (It must blow your mind, being able to see even _more_ colors than you can in hum-)

(It's not just that,) she cut in, shaking her solemn raven head. (Though all these gorgeous colors are totally cool. The raven's mind...it's so much like a little kid's. It's smart and curious, just like you said. But it also seriously likes to play too. And eat,) she added. (Definitely eat.)

(Well, hopefully she likes to fly too.)

(Oh yeah,) she laughed. (She thinks flying rules.)

(Then just follow your squadron leader mam,) I said as I pushed off from my branch, flapping to clear the canopy and gain altitude.

Toph came right behind, the sun giving her black feathers an iridescent purplish sheen as we rose above the trees.

Ravens are _huge_ birds, even bigger than I am. And like I said, they'll mob hawks if they get half a chance. So it was a bit intimidating to have one flying so close to me, even if I knew she was just a friend in morph.

(So you know where Olivia's home is?) she asked me again as she flew off to my left, her wing beats heavy and casual.

(Not the specific address, but I definitely know the street, and I can just scan the mailboxes until I find the right one. Besides, that fenced in yard for her dogs should stand out just a bit.)

(Thanks a bunch for doing this for me.)

(Hey, no problem. And if you still don't think you can find your way there on your own after today, either Ax or I will be happy to guide you for as long as it takes until you feel comfortable doing it yourself.)

(That's real nice of you.)

I could see that she was flapping too much, and often veering to one side as she flew. Although they're somewhat better at endurance flying, like hawks, ravens generally tend to simply either soar or glide whenever in flight.

(Remember,) I advised her, (the raven's mind knows best when it comes to flying. Just let it come out and do its thing. And it's best if you just copy me and soar along.)

(Okay Hawk Boy.)

The ability to fly, to look down on the world below, and see a range of colors richer than even humans knew had to have been pure ecstasy to Toph.

(This is just sweet!) she exclaimed. (I had no clue trees looked so...so bushy!-and so intensely green!-from above like this! And what's that thing the light's doing on the water Hawk Boy?)

(Sparkling,) I told her casually.

(Sparkling,) she repeated in wonder. (Great Oma, it's so beautiful. And what's that 'white' stuff covering the tops of the mountains way, way behind us?)

(Snow.)

(So that's what it looks like. Maybe one of you guys could take me to see that sometime?)

(It's a long flight, but sure, maybe on a day like this when there's nothing happening with the Yeerks we could do that.)

(That would be awesome! And besides, all away from people in a place like that, I could put on a show of some REAL earthbending up there for you guys,) she added, giving a gleeful cackle.

(Sounds good.)

We flew over Cassie's home, then towards town at a westerly angle.

As we soared and circled and glided, I told her, (Okay, we've got to split off from each other a bit, but not so much that we can't communicate.)

(Split off? Why?)

(Remember how I told you ravens aren't exactly fond of hawks? Any birdwatchers down there might find it just a bit odd to see a raven and a red-tail casually flying together like they're best buds.)

(Say no more Hawk Boy,) Toph replied as she peeled off.

Hawks rarely play as adults. When a hawk is successful at finding food and has had a good meal, it usually spends the rest of its day resting on a perch and digesting, preening its feathers and watching the sky to make sure no rivals are nearby. Or it might casually soar around, watching and learning about the movements and habits of the local rodents, rabbits, and other prey for when it gets hungry again.

Occasionally a well-fed hawk will strafe another bird in flight, just to get some excitement going, or carry a stick, clod of dirt, or other small object into the air before dropping it and attempting to catch it again, and I guess you could call that playful behavior.

But hawks are almost always very serious about everything they do.

Ravens though, are the exact opposite. They love to make _everything_ into a game, to tease and show off, pull stunts and do tricks. They make life's rules up as they go along.

And as we flew along, halfway caught up in the raven's playful nature, Toph began to try a few antics of her own.

She did a barrel roll, once, twice.

She then engaged in roller-coaster flight, swooping toward the ground, then back up, and then down again, laughing and exulting in thought-speak. Another barrel roll followed.

She got up above me and then, without warning, dove down at me. I thought she was just showing off, like I do sometimes when Rachel and I fly together.

But to my shock, I felt her feet give me a good whomp on the back, claws pricking my skin.

"Tsseeerrr!" I cried in annoyance and surprise.

(Ow! What the-Toph, what was that for?!) I demanded sharply.

(Hey, aren't we supposed to act natural in morph?) she teasingly replied with a wicked little laugh.

(Yeah, but that doesn't mean you have to fricking beat on me as part of the act,) I grumbled. (I get enough of that from the real ravens already.)

(Oh, chill out Hawk Boy,) she replied as she let herself fall in a controlled cartwheel. (I'm just having a bit of fun. Besides, you should know by now that whacking someone means I like em.)

(May I suggest a simple hug as a less painf-)

As I spoke, something caught my hawk eyes below at that moment, making me pause mid-sentence.

We were now starting to fly over the suburbs and city limits, with their gas stations, housing developments, fast food places and power lines.

And of course, the cars driving on the grid of streets.

Most of them were ordinary, everyday vehicles. SUV's. Flashy sports cars. Semi trucks. Pickups. Some cabs.

Weaving its way among them, headed in what seemed to roughly be a northeast direction and toward the city limits, was a stylish black limousine.

_That_ made me snap alert.

There's a saying, related to statistics, which goes like this: things and experiences which are commonplace are the ones you're most likely to have to deal with, while you're much more _unlikely_ to come across things that are rare. So when you hear hooves clopping along, expect horses, not zebras.

But when it comes to the Yeerks, we can't ever afford to think like that. After all, these are some very stealthy, very smart, and very deadly zebras, ones which can pass themselves off as horses with frightening ease.

We know that whenever he's in a human morph, Visser Three often travels either in a helicopter or a limo like the one I was watching right now, picking up speed as it made its way out of town.

And I had a feeling this one had something to do with him.

But on the other hand, it's not like Visser Three is the only guy who ever uses a limo to get around. That limo could be shuttling him or another high-ranking Controller out to check on some Yeerk project taking place up in the mountains-or it could just be your everyday, ordinary fat cat headed to a local mega-resort or their second home in the foothills. I didn't know exactly what to think.

Toph must've noticed what I was doing, because I heard her say in thought-speak, (What's going on Hawk Boy? You see something wrong going on down there?)

(I don't know,) I replied thoughtfully as I circled a little lower, eyes still fixed on the limo but unable to see through its tinted windows. (Maybe...but then again it could just be nothing.)

(You checking out that long black vehicle down there?)

(Yeah, and it's technically called a limousine. People in our society who are very wealthy, powerful, or just want to show off sometimes use them to get around...but so does Visser Three when he's in human morph.)

(You mean that Visser Three could be riding in that limousine thing below us right now?) Toph asked, her tone darkening.

(He definitely could,) I admitted. (But it could also just be the manager of some big company or something. We can't tell for sure.)

(Maybe we should follow it to find out.)

(Sorry, but not this time Toph,) I told her. (We don't know how far or fast they're going to be driving before stopping, and you've got a time limit to worry about. Besides, we're supposed to be headed over to Olivia's, not getting involved in what could turn out to just be a big wild goose chase.)

(And even if Visser Three IS in that limo,) I added as I peeled away and continued to head deeper into town, (he'll have protection, and we've got no business going anywhere near him without some backup. I'll definitely do some surveillance later on though, just to see if something really is going on.)

(Yeah,) Toph agreed. (We don't know enough either way, and we've also gotta stick to the morning's plans. Keep leading the way, Hawk Boy.)

I spent a few more moments watching the limo from one eye, shining in the sun, getting a feel for which direction it was headed. Later I'd make a flight along that same general path for a few miles, look around for anything that the Yeerks might be interested in or want to make use of. But right now Toph needed her breakfast and to learn the way.

The rest of the flight there was pretty uneventful. Toph asked some expected questions about what exactly was she looking down at, and I'd patiently tell her they were houses or sidewalks or cats or parking lots, yadda yadda. Or she'd simply play in the air, doing roller-coaster flying, closing one wing and falling to the side, swerving away and looping back again, taking a break to good-naturedly swoop at and tease a passing crow a few times, which harshly squawked in indignation.

"Quork!" Toph replied in the raven's throaty voice as she noiselessly laughed.

It wasn't long before we found Carver Drive. Even before I read the number on the side of the mailbox, I was all but certain the house I was circling over was Olivia's from the chain-link fence surrounding it. A black German shepherd mix and a Scottish terrier were playing together in the yard it made.

We couldn't just drop in of course. A hawk and a raven landing together in a suburban backyard and then transforming into people is the sort of thing people tend to notice.

And plopping down as birds in a yard that contains at least one big dog? Might as well go tubing on a river filled with hungry alligators.

Fortunately though, a few blocks away there was a big, brushy gully snaking through town. It had several bridges and culverts too, perfect places to demorph.

Toph must've read my mind, for she said simply, (I guess that's where we'll be changing back, huh?)

(You got it,) I confirmed. (I'm going to circle down first and then land hard in the brush close to that culvert, flap around a bit to make it seem like I just caught something. Then you follow, like you're attracted by whatever I killed, and we'll demorph inside it.)

(Sounds like a plan to me,) she agreed as I spiraled down.

A few minutes later we were walking out of the culvert in our morphing suits, fully human.

We climbed on top of it to get on the sidewalk, and started walking the several blocks to Olivia's.

Since it was a weekday, there weren't very many people around. Still, I held Toph's hand and she kept her eyes shut as we walked and crossed the streets.

It's funny, seeing as a human after you're used to doing it as a hawk. You almost feel like you're half-blind. For Toph of course, it was the real deal.

Lost in my thoughts, I almost didn't notice Toph when she said, "You know Tobias, I've been thinking, remember that morning when you said it was too bad I didn't have a campfire, otherwise you could go out and catch something for me?"

"Yeah, I do. Are you saying you're still willing to take me up on that offer?"

"Well, kind of-except I'd like for you to teach me some things about hunting for myself, since I might not always be able to depend on Olivia for food."

"Hey, you couldn't have found a better teacher," I said, giving what I thought was a satisfied smile. "And as long as you don't hunt near my territory, I'd be happy to show you what to do. When do you want to start?"

"Late afternoon, if we can. It'd be awesome to catch my own dinner for once," she grinned expectantly, an almost predatory display of teeth.

"I'll be hanging around your cave then," I promised.

"Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome."

When we came to the Chee's front gate, both dogs stopped playing and ran up to the fence, leaping up and barking in excitement.

Toph stayed cool, but hawk instinct made me jerk back in surprise and even try to leap into the air before I got a grip.

A few seconds later, the knob turned and Olivia stepped out, a rufous-coated pitbull standing behind her.

"Toph! Tobias!" she said in excitement. "Nice to see you this morning! You here for breakfast I'm guessing?"

"Don't know about Hawk Boy here, but I definitely am."

"I'm just showing her the way, but it's still nice to meet you."

"Come in, both of you," the Chee amiably requested. "The dogs won't harm you, but make sure you shut the gate behind you so they don't get out."

I did so, the dogs leaping around and sniffing us as we followed Olivia inside.

Inside her kitchen I could smell freshly made waffles and other foods, including some sort of buns on the countertop.

After sniffing eagerly herself, Toph exclaimed, "Wow, did you make rice porridge Olivia? And steamed buns stuffed with pork?"

"That I did," the android said. "I also made an American breakfast food called waffles that I think you'll enjoy."

"You're the best, dog-robot."

"Do you want to stay and have some breakfast too Tobias?" Olivia asked, looking at me. "There's enough for everyone."

"Thanks, but I've already eaten," I replied. "Nice of you to offer though."

"Oh come on Hawk Boy," Toph urged. "Don't be a stranger. And if you're worried about the time limit, taking a few minutes to try some people food is nothing. It'll do you good."

"Well, I guess I can stay a bit," I conceded.

Olivia set an extra place for me, and I awkwardly lowered myself into the cushioned wooden chair, staying seated as she passed out the food.

It was kind of odd, tasting starches again after knowing only the taste of warm, raw meat for so long, and the sweetness of the syrup on the waffles was close to overpowering for me, so I didn't put much on.

Still, it was good to have a proper human breakfast. The rice porridge-or jook as it's more properly known-was pretty good, seasoned with chili powder and crumbled blue cheese with some chopped yams and ginger mixed in. The steamed buns turned out to be tasty too, especially the shredded pork filling. And of course I liked the waffles.

Olivia also offered us green tea, which I politely declined.

Toph was glad to take a cup though, and definitely enjoyed the jook and steamed buns, going through several helpings before she finally felt full. She liked the waffles as well, eating them with streams of syrup.

After breakfast, we talked for a bit. I told Olivia about how Mertil had come over last night so Toph could acquire, then morph him, and how when she had, we'd found out that for some crazy reason all her morphs were female ones.

She and Toph told me more about their day at the mall, all the amazing, wonderful things she'd seen, and how the amount of clothes and stuff they'd brought to the cave was nothing compared to what'd been left behind here.

Naturally, that eventually led to Toph morphing a set of working eyes and showing me around the place, the dogs curiously following. She showed me all her new stuff and the so-called bed of coarse gravel she had in an empty bedroom. It hardly looked like my idea of luxury, but hey, different strokes for different folks I guess. And considering that I spend each night dozing in an oak tree, I'm in no position to be judgmental.

It really was nice, to be able to comfortably spend some time in a human house, to feel, in some small way, like I was a good friend of a family, even if the family was an android tens of millennia old and a girl from another planet who could shift and toss rocks with her mind.

Speaking of which, while I was there, Toph displayed her special ability to metalbend for Olivia and I, and oh man, even for me that was just insane!

You ever seen on TV how Uri Geller and other so-called "psychics" make spoons and forks bend through sheer mental will? Well, hate to break it to you, but that stuff is fake, as fake as that classic "picture" of the Loch Ness Monster.

But what Toph did in Yzark's kitchen was the stunning real thing.

The first item was a sacrificial all-metal steak knife, and as we watched, she held her hand over it and made a squeezing motion, like when my talons clamp down on a squirrel. As she did, the knife, all on its own, folded neatly into an upside-down U as my human jaw dropped.

She then took it at both ends and literally _twisted_ it into a rough braid for us with her bending, the knife rotating between her twisting palms.

I don't care how strong you are, there's no possible way a normal human being can even begin to do that, much less without getting cut.

Next up was an empty can of dog food. Putting both her hands above it, her muscles tense, she spread them apart-and cleanly tore the steel can in half, right down the middle! Then, for good measure, she wadded the results into a clump and smugly presented them to me, as if the razor-edged metal had been nothing more than aluminum foil.

With this sort of power, I doubted even the Gleet Biofilters could keep us from penetrating the Pool and other Yeerk facilities now!

But eventually, I had to morph back to my hawk body and leave.

We all went up into the guest bedroom, where Olivia shut the door so I could demorph without having to worry about the dogs, and then thoughtfully opened the window so I could take to the friendly skies.

Drowsy and well-fed from her traditional Chinese breakfast, Toph flipped her hair out behind her and laid down in her bed of gravel to doze, picking her nose as she did so.

Once I was fully hawk again, I hopped up to the windowsill, ready to exit under a holographic projection of Yzark's.

(You planning to stay here for a while I guess?) I asked.

"Yeah, I'm feeling like just relaxing for a while after that breakfast," Toph drowsily confirmed as her eyes turned misty jade again. "Besides, I'd like to spend some time talking with Olivia, find out more about this Chinese culture that's so like my Earth Kingdom one."

(Cool,) I replied. (Want me to come back and lead you to the cave later, or do you think you can fly back on your own?)

"I should be able to manage by myself Hawk Boy," she replied with a dismissive flip of her hand. "Or I can just morph Sirius, the black dog, and run back to the ravine."

(Just watch out for cars if you do.)

"I will. Now you go enjoy soaring around or whatever," she yawned.

"Goodbye Tobias," Olivia said. "It was a delight to have you here."

(You're welcome. Thanks for the breakfast,) I said as I launched myself into the air.

I gained altitude, found myself a thermal, and headed back in the direction the limousine had been going for maybe fifteen miles.

I didn't see the limo again, but I did see a few places in the area that the Yeerks could have a strategic interest in. A dude ranch. A summer camp. A transmission tower. A cattle feedlot. Another transmission tower. Yet another summer camp. A gem mine.

Trouble is, with all these potential locations that the Yeerks could be busy at, it could take a long time to figure out exactly which one they were concentrating their efforts on...assuming they were even active around here at all. Although I'd had a feeling about that limo, like I'd told Toph, I could very well just be chasing shadows.

Giving up, I turned away and on a whim, made my way to the beach. I worked the excellent thermals and updrafts there for a while, and stooped on a group of pigeons I saw perched on a sea cliff, scattering them for amusement and to remind them who the predator was around here. (Interestingly, I've seen ravens go after pigeons sometimes too. Usually they focus on nestlings, but I've also seen them attack adults, hitting them full force with splayed feet and trying to knock them out of the air. If the raven can force it to the ground, that pigeon is screwed.)

I then flew back inland, back towards the woods, to pay Ax a visit in his scoop. Silly as it sounds, sometimes Ax and I read books together to pass the time. We might go to the B. Dalton's they have in the mall in our respective human morphs together, and browse the aisles until we find a title we both like, and either buy it right then or at a later time if money or the time limit gets to be an issue.

Thrift stores are also excellent places for us to get books. Seriously, you would not _believe_ the amount of used books you can get at those places, usually for less than a dollar apiece-or even fifty cents!

The other Animorphs too, sometimes give us books they're either tired of or have outgrown.

Anyway, Ax and I spent some time reading and talking about the latest book we'd got, _Because of Winn-Dixie_.

It's a great book about a ten year old girl named India Opal, or Opal for short, who was abandoned by her mom at the age of three and moves to a town in Florida with her withdrawn preacher father. In the local Winn-Dixie supermarket, the lonely Opal comes across and makes friends with a big, hairy, scruffy, funny stray dog whom she names after the store.

Winn-Dixie becomes her trusted companion, and his charming grin and sweet nature help Opal to make friends with an eccentric, lovable group of people that in time grow to be like a sort of strange extended family, including a man who no one likes, a quirky librarian who once drove off a bear with a copy of _War And Peace_, and a guy who nobody understands. Her father too, opens up enough to reveal ten close secrets about her long-gone mother. I'd say the general theme of it is that even the most unlikely of people can become the closest friends.

It was a book Ax and I could totally relate to in so many ways: discovering secrets from the past dealing with someone who was close to you, feeling alone, making unexpected friends, growing to think of them as family, coming out of your shell, and so on.

I couldn't help but be reminded of Toph whenever old Gloria Dump was mentioned, a former drinker who's mostly blind-but still sees just fine with her heart.

And well, sappy as it might sound, while I wasn't sure yet if I saw myself as like a big brother to her, or still just a good friend, I definitely knew Toph was carving a place into ours.

* * *

**As always, more to come, and we're finally close to done with Toph's integrating, if you want to call it that.**


	22. Chapter 22

**While I'm still working up to Toph's first confrontation with the Yeerks, (and it _will_ come soon enough, I promise!) this chapter will finally feature some action and violence as Toph tries out a new way to feed herself. Thanks for your patientice.**

* * *

After sleeping contentedly for about an hour and a quarter in her box of gravel, Toph had woken up and, remembering the cautions about the hot water from the metal faucets, asked Olivia if she could get her a glass of water, which the android did. Then she took off her constricting leotard and exchanged it for a pair of underwear, a "tank top," and knee-length shorts before putting her hair into a ponytail in the upstairs bathroom.

When she came downstairs, Toph and Yzark spent some time out in the yard playing with the dogs, tossing a ball for the hilariously enthusiastic Sirius or Red to retrieve, or playing tug of war with a sturdy rope. Red and Simon also hugely loved playing with a "soccer ball" Toph or Yzark would occasionally kick for them, jumping on and mouthing it.

And of course, all the dogs often just made their own fun by chasing each other around the yard, the pounding of their paws and hearts thudding through Toph's soles as they panted. It practically wore her out just observing them.

Once she'd tired of that, they all went into the house, where Yzark cooked up a meal of chicken breast with pea pods and beef fried rice for the earthbender, as well as a pot of egg drop soup. A baked pear would serve as dessert.

As a droid, Olivia had no real need to eat. So as Toph ate her lunch with a pair of chopsticks, the Chee told her about China, the amazing, exotic civilization and people she'd spent so much of her time on the planet living among and mimicking, one which was a replica of the earthbender's in so many ways.

First, though, she told Toph of her own long, long, long history, often playing back sounds from events that'd happened on other worlds and long before human civilization. Toph's mind struggled to grasp the idea, that the sounds of living beings and events which had happened so unimaginably long ago could be reproduced right now...and from a source that wasn't even alive.

She couldn't smell, hear, or see the living things logic told her _had_ to be making the sounds in the flesh. They were all coming from the Chee-and while she kept talking herself!

It was yet another thing far beyond her ability to understand, and all she could do was allow her mind to slump in resigned acceptance. The sounds were being produced, they were providing information which helped her understand the droid's story better, and they didn't seem to be posing any danger to her, which was all that really counted.

Speaking in Mandarin for her convenience, the droid told Toph about being constructed in a "factory," and the gentle, affectionate, playful race of beings that had been her creators and playmates, the Pemalites.

"_If you want to have an idea of what our Pemalite masters were like,_" she wistfully told the earthbender, "_think of birds or monkeys in the forest. They loved to be funny, to sing and be together, enjoyed the sunrise, good food, to investigate and play. And like monkeys and birds, they were so peaceful. If strangers who looked like trouble or tried to harm them came too close, they'd simply fly to another tree-so to speak._"

But their gentle ways had left them powerless against the savagery of the genocidal Howlers, who'd arrived one day and slaughtered the peaceful Pemalites by the millions. Their objective wasn't to conquer or dominate. It wasn't a show of force or a way of softening up possible resistance beforehand either. It was simply to exterminate.

And exterminating the Howlers had done with a horrific efficiency, even infecting the survivors with a lethal virus so that not even fleeing would save them.

Later, Toph would find out from Cassie that Yzark had actually left quite a lot of details out of her own firsthand account to make it easier for the earthbender to handle, that the complete picture of what had happened, as Erek had showed them, was even grimmer and far more agonizing.

Still, the Chee told enough of it to make a sickened Toph feel like her heart had been sliced to pieces.

They'd all arrived on Earth, with just a handful of dying Pemalites left on the "spaceship." Then they did some strange thing with the "spiritual essence" of those last Pemalites, transferring it into a nearby pack of "Eurasian" wolves in a procedure Toph just couldn't make heads or tails of, giving rise to the first dogs.

It was far easier though, for her to understand and relate to what Olivia told her about the land of China, so much like her own world and its history that it just blew her away.

Like in her culture, they believed in a heaven where good people went after death, and also in many different hells for different types of sinners. (For instance, people who were known liars during their life went to a hell where they would repeatedly have their tongues cut out and boiling oil poured down their throats as punishment, while people who were cruel to their animals went to a hell where cattle, buffalo, horses and dogs would constantly gore, trample, kick and savage them for all eternity while demons whipped and beat them for good measure.)

They had bamboo, used for constructing everything from fans to the framework of houses. The moon held great spiritual importance for them. Like her, they believed in an earth god named Tu Gong, except he wasn't the greatest of the deities to the Chinese. That title belonged to Lao-Tien-Yeh, the Jade Emperor of Heaven. And like on her world, rice was the staff of life.

Olivia also told her about Chinese history as seen through her eyes, from a time when its people lived in small bands and wrote on bones and tortoise shells, to the splendor of the Ming Dynasty.

The droid was just starting to tell her about one of her several "lifetimes" working on the magnificent, incomprehensively long Great Wall of China, when the air in the kitchen was suddenly split by a jangling, piercing, awareness-shattering sound.

BBBRRRRIIIINNNNGGGG!

"Ai yoh!" Toph shouted in shock as she leapt to her feet, chair tumbling backward as she slammed her palms over her sensitive ears, cringing at the sensory blow.

"_Toph! It's okay, nothing's wrong._"

BBBBRRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGG

"_Mother of Kyoshi, what's doing that?!_" Toph cried out in Mandarin. "_What's making that horrible sound?!_"

"_It's just an appliance called a telephone,_" the droid said as she went toward the source of the sound. "_The sound lets you know someone's trying to call and talk to you._"

"_So it's not dangerous?_"

"_Not at all,_" the Chee assured her as Toph heard a dull _click _of something being moved off the wall. "_Annoying and surprising at times maybe, but not dangerous. Now let's see who's calling._"

"Hello?" Toph heard her say to what seemed to open air. Why was she talking to nothing?

Whether the glandular structures responsible for producing hormones in Toph's species are similar to those of humans, and whether they can also produce adrenaline under stress is their secret.

All the same, the noise of the "telephone," had been a shock to the bender's system, made her fearful, hyper-alert, and ready to reach out with her bending for any available metal she could use to fight.

As she was just beginning to calm down, the earthbender got another shock when Olivia suddenly then said, "Yes, she's here right now."

Was this a joke? How could you be talking to someone that wasn't even there? It couldn't be thought-talk, because the Chee was clearly using some type of machine to do it.

Before she had time to puzzle it over anymore though, Yzark turned toward her, saying "It's Dan, from the mall. He wants to talk to you."

Profoundly confused, Toph directed her attention from the "telephone," to the Chee and back again before saying, "I'm happy he wants to talk to me, but how can he talk to me when he's not even-"

"_I know it doesn't make sense to you,_" Yzark interrupted, "_but just go with it for now_. _If you wait too long he'll hang up or get mad._"

_Well, I don't want that,_ Toph thought.

Warily, puzzled, the blood still pounding in her ears and somewhat on edge from the harsh ringing sound, she grasped the strange, clamp-shaped device, slick and armored with plastic, weighted at both ends.

With a bit of assistance from Olivia, she put the top end up to her ear and the bottom to her mouth before cautiously saying, "Hello? Daniel?" A part of her was feeling awfully foolish, knowing she was talking into nothing.

But much to her surprise, out of thin air, from the inert device, she heard Daniel Thongchai's voice!

"Hey Zhenzhu," the air next to her ear said. It was him, or at least a damn good imitation of him!

For the earthbender, it was like coming across a stream that flowed uphill or a badgermole that could fly, the ultimate impossibility. It would be like if a man shouted at his dog for misbehavior-and then the pooch told him, out loud, they were so sorry.

Her first impulse was to give a sudden yelp of fear and jerk the phone away from her head like it'd suddenly turned into a rattle-adder. Somehow though, she was able to find just enough control not to fling it across the kitchen.

Instead, she settled for merely holding it at arm's length as the Chee repeated, "_Don't worry Zhenzhu, it's perfectly safe._"

"Whoa, what's up with you Zhenzhu?" Daniel's perplexed voice resonated, more faintly, as the earthbender blindly stared at the "telephone." "My voice isn't that horrible, is it?" he laughed. "Or did you just see a mouse? Mindy can't _stan_-"

"Where _are_ you Dan-ie-l?" Toph said in abject confusion. "How are you talking to me?"

"At my school, outside during lunch time," he replied, increasingly baffled from what she could tell. "And I'm talking to you on my cell phone. How else would I be talking to you without actually coming to your house?"

"_Just stay natural and be calm, like I did,_" Yzark coached.

Trying to keep calm, Toph said, "I don't know, maybe coming and talking to me face-to-face instead of out of thin air? Is this all some big trick you're playing?" she demanded.

"Uh nnnooooo," Daniel's voice moaned cautiously. "Don't tell me you were _that_ sheltered at your orphanage that you've never had any experience with phones before!" he chuckled.

Now that the initial shock was wearing away, Toph was finally becoming collected enough to bring the telephone device back up to her ear and play her role once more, taking a deep breath before saying, "Actually, I have, now that I remember it. It's just that it's been a while, and not many people used them around where I came from."

"Whatever you say," Daniel answered with dry skepticism. "Need me to explain how phones work for you, so you don't get that freaked out next time?"

"No, I kind of know already," the earthbender quickly replied. "It's not important."

He gave a sort of grunt, and dismissed the matter, thank Tu Gong.

"Anyway, glad I finally got in touch with you," he went on. "I tried last night, but there was no answer, and I figured you were just busy with trying on and opening all your clothes."

_More like either putting some of them away in my cave or running around as an Andalite, _Toph thought. _What's an Andalite Daniel? And why do I live in a cave? Trust me, it's a long story._

But she nodded, getting accustomed to this additional example of completely-crazy-ass-yet-harmless technology as she said, "Exactly what I was doing. Sorry I missed ya."

"Eh, no problem," he said, a disembodied voice.

"So, how was last evening for you and Mindy?"

"It was good. Mom made fried catfish with chili sauce and steamed vegetables for dinner, and silver-thread noodle soup for a side dish."

"Mmm, that does sound like good stuff," Toph agreed, even though she only knew about catfish-bass. "I love fish. Have any dessert after?"

"Yep, we had mango custard, and that was just delicious."

"Sweet. And in more ways than one," the earthbender added, both of them laughing at the unintended joke.

"Anyway, while we-Mindy and me-were eating, we also told our Mom about how we met you at the mall, and wow, was she ever happy for us!"

His voice becoming more subdued, he went on, "It's really hard on us you know, having to leave our friends back in Thailand to move here, and she understands that."

"I'm really sorry," Toph said sympathetically.

"It's okay," Daniel replied. "You're pretty much the first real friend Mindy and I've made since moving here, and Mom was overjoyed when we told her about you."

"Really? How did she react?"

"She broke into a big smile that seemed to last all evening, and told us that was wonderful, that she was happy for us. She also said that you should come over some evening to meet her, and that Mindy and I should go out on the town with you, have a good time."

The bender briefly "glanced" in Olivia's direction before wryly saying, "Well that's rather sudden. What's she trying to do, play matchmaker and hope I'll make a good girlfriend?"

She laughed as Daniel began to sputter in consternation, "No, not like that! She just want-"

"Relax dude," she assured him, chuckling. "I'm kidding. I get what you're saying."

"Ah, good. Yeah," Daniel sighed as he calmed down. "Oh, and she wanted me to ask you beforehand, is it okay if she takes your picture too?"

"What-" She strangled the sentence just in time. "What does she want my picture for?" she inquired, pretending she knew what he was talking about.

"As a memory of course," he replied. "I mean, you're only the first friend we've made in America after all," he wryly added.

"I guess that's okay with me." _Just try not to seem naïve._

"Cool. Anyway, you feel like a movie Wednesday night? I think Bring It On might be fun."

"That sounds fun, I guess. But I'd rather go-(what was the word? Bowling?)-bowling though, if you don't mind."

"Sure, we could probably do that. Do you have a place in mind and a time?"

"I'm thinking Blue Oak Lanes."

And so, Toph's second meeting with the Thongchai twins began to be planned out. They would go to the bowling alley two nights from now-and with both Steve and Jake Berenson coming along.

* * *

Up in the foothills away from town, about fifteen minutes away from Cassie's farm as the hawk flew, a trio of birds of prey sat perched in different trees on the edge of a meadow.

One was Tobias, in his hawk body. One was Ax in his own bird of prey morph, a sleek silver gray northern harrier tiecrel.

The third one was Toph, in the body of a female goshawk, regarding the surroundings with fascinated wonder through the regal bird's hooded eyes, colored the dark red of venous blood-and also scanning for any possible prey.

(So,) she asked half-jokingly, (before I go out to search the woods, is there any prey you'd recommend that's tastier than others Tobias?)

(Well,) Tobias said thoughtfully as he delicately scratched at the side of his head, (rabbit is my personal favorite, as well as snake, partly because the meat is rather tender. And from what I understand, rabbits are also pretty good eating and easy to clean for human entrees too.)

(Still,) he added, (whatever you might end up catching, Ax and I can probably manage to figure out how to gut and skin it in our human morphs.)

(Good to know. And you'll come and warn me if I start to get too close to the time limit right?) she said to Ax, glancing at him.

(I shall Toph,) he assured her. (I will be nearby to keep track of you, but not so near that it will interfere with your efforts to hunt.)

(That's probably just as well,) she replied with dark humor, (since creepy as I know it sounds, this goshawk, it's actually kind of interested in taking YOU down for a meal.)

(I dearly hope you will continue to direct your morph's predatory desires elsewhere.)

(Won't be a problem. Anyway, time to go a-hunting,) Toph said thoughtfully as she crouched, then flung herself into space as she beat her wings in a downstroke.

Goshawks tend to hunt by flying low to the ground, using their broad wings and extremely long tail feathers to weave among the trees and underbrush, scanning for prey and then trying to kill it on the wing. Or sometimes they may perch at a likely spot and wait for a meal to fly or stroll by.

Toph chose to actively hunt, enjoying the thrill of always seeing more of the forest, of flying and dodging with breathtaking grace and speed through the trees, constantly watching with a pair of eyes which provided her with a clarity and diversity of vision and color she could never have fathomed before receiving the morphing power.

From above her and maybe a hundred yards in front and to her left, she heard a crow caw in agitation as it noticed her.

The sound galvanized her goshawk body. Crows weren't merely an irritating pest, they were also suitable prey, fairly easy to chase down and grab with their labored style of flying. But the idea of eating one for her dinner wasn't something the Blind Bandit found appealing, and she moved on.

A few minutes after that, she heard, then saw a Douglas squirrel that had been hopping on the ground just to her right give a bark of alarm and race up a pine tree, whipping around to the other side.

Goshawks are master squirrel hunters, able to pursue the rodents as they leap from the branches of one tree to another and scurry through a three-dimensional maze. And if the squirrel had been a gray one, Toph would've gone after it. But a Douglas was too small for a proper human dinner.

Then, several minutes later, her red goshawk eyes spotted a slight, twitching movement through the trees, about eighty-five feet to her left. It was just a pair of long ears, screened by grass and growing seedlings.

They belonged to a rabbit, lightly hopping out from his home in an old, hollow log, ready to start grazing.

Toph was delighted, and so was her goshawk body. This was a quarry they could agree on.

The goshawk's mind knew what just to do, and with a flick of her amazingly long tail, she banked hard and took off after the rabbit like a dart.

She saw the rabbit's ears flick back and his eyes widen to expose their whites as he noticed the incoming danger and bolted into the brush. He dodged and raced through the trees and bushes at full tilt, but Toph never missed a beat as she zoomed like a cheetah, like a meteor, just behind him, her eyes never leaving his white puff of a tail.

ZOOM! A hard right!

ZOOM! A hard left!

ZOOM! Another hard right!

ZOOM! Tuck wings in to zip through a narrow gap between two large saplings!

ZOOM! Tilt body at ninety-degree angle to the right!

ZOOM! Tuck in wings and use feet like levers to get through branches of fallen tree!

ZOOM! Hard left and tuck in wings to plunge through a dogwood bush's branches!

ZOOM! Another hard right!

It was amazing, an electric rush!

The chase hadn't even lasted eight seconds before she was on him, flinging her talons down and forward as she opened her wings to brake, and struck!

Her borrowed talons pierced living flesh, and the rabbit screeched, a thin, teakettle cry as Toph came down on him with the force of a brick dropped from a four story window. The rabbit tried desperately to buck himself free as he squealed again-but was soon stilled and silenced as one of her taloned feet clamped down on his head with all the grim relentlessness and power of a Spanish Inquisitor's skull squeezer, and her hooked beak tore at his nape.

Euphoria rushed through her, as intensely as whenever she won an Earth Rumble. This was _her_ kill! _Her_ victory! Her meat for tonight!

She stood, mantling the rabbit with her wings as she panted from excitement and the exertion of the chase. This was the way of life, to hunt, to detect and overtake, to snatch, to hear the death cry, to tear at the bleeding flesh!

Her wings flared out even more and she crouched aggressively as a male northern harrier came gliding up to perch on a rotting log a few yards away, both the goshawk and the bender preparing to defend what was hers.

But it was just Antelope Boy.

(A good job on your first hunt Toph,) he congratulated, glancing at the rabbit underneath her.

(Thanks Ax,) she acknowledged. (How much time do I have left in morph?)

(You have seventy-three of your minutes remaining.)

(And I second that opinion,) Tobias added as he landed beside her. (About the good job I mean. How does it feel to have made your first kill?) he asked her gently.

(It feels great!) she said in excitement, even as blood and fur coated her beak. (I won this race, and now I'll get to enjoy rabbit for dinner. And man, zipping through the woods like that! That was such a rush!) she exulted.

He nodded casually. It was a weird thing, seeing a bird do that in such a natural, humanlike way. She wondered if Hawk Boy had expected her to feel guilty or upset about killing the rabbit, possibly since she was a girl.

If so, he was mistaken. It was meat, nothing more, and she felt no more remorse than an armadillo lion tearing at a dying rabbit-roo.

(Need one of us to airlift it back for you?) Tobias asked.

(Nah, I'll be fine,) she dismissed. (First I'm going to lighten the load a bit though, since I should have enough time.)

Holding the rabbit firmly against the ground, she tore at the flesh just behind its head until she severed it, eating a piece now and again to satisfy the goshawk's hunger.

Then she shifted position and sprung up into the air with the headless rabbit, wings pumping with exertion as she flew back to the ravine with Ax and Hawk Boy following her, all three of them keeping apart.

After putting her rabbit down by the stream, she demorphed.

A rabbit's skin is almost as fragile as wet paper toweling, and so Tobias had little trouble skinning it in human morph. After lowering the stone barrier blocking her cave and having a drink from the metal bucket, Toph bent a small but sharp stone blade from a cave wall, which she used to hack off the rabbit's feet.

Tobias then used the same blade to gut it, washing the corpse clean in the stream as Toph piled some kindling, then bigger logs, in her fire pit and Ax decided to helpfully sharpen a spare branch from her firewood supply into a cooking stick before lighting the small cooking fire himself with the barbecue lighter-a task that even his weak Andalite hands were more than up to.

Once he'd done that, the Andalite morphed the harrier again and bid the earthbender goodbye, then flew back to his scoop.

As the rabbit cooked over the fire, Tobias morphed back to hawk and consumed the feet and other scraps, then listened as Toph decided to kill time by telling him a story Poppy had told her many times as a girl, about a boy named Little Bayberry and a golden reed pipe that made all loathsome things dance uncontrollably.

In the tale, he used the golden pipe to make a dragon tyrant dance himself to the point of drowning from exhaustion in a pond, and so saving his older sister from her years of servitude under the dragon. It had the interesting moral that some people are so irredeemably evil that they _must _be defeated for keeps, and sometimes you can't do things in half-measures.

Hawk Boy told her one of his own after she was done, one he'd been told at a place for religious education he called "Sunday school," about a man named Noah who built an immense wooden ship called an ark in preparation for a great flood and brought at least two of every type of animal on board to keep their species from vanishing. All other living things drowned during a deluge kicked off by a rainstorm that lasted for forty days and forty nights.

"Whoa," Toph replied. "Now _that_ is a lot of rainwater. Too bad the people left outside couldn't morph birds like we can."

(Serious rain,) Tobias agreed. (Oh, and by the way, while I'm not exactly the Wolfgang Puck type, it looks to me like your rabbit is probably done now.)

After waiting for it to cool as he finished his ark story, Toph slipped her meat off the branch and began to gnaw at it. It tasted like good chicken breast.

She was just starting in when she heard a flapping of large wings and felt Tobias shift his body to glance at the cave entrance through her soles as a raven suddenly appeared a few yards away.

"Ni hao Toph," the raven said in an actual human voice while it hopped toward the cave mouth.

"Marco? That you?" she inquired as she sightlessly "looked" up from her roast rabbit. As she did so, she felt her eyes widen and her lips part in the briefest of smiles. She was happy to have him here, she realized.

"None other miss," he replied in the raven's voice.

"So Sunshine was right, you _can_ talk in that morph!" Toph said, impressed.

"Yep. Cool huh? Nevermore," he added before laughing out loud. Very odd, hearing such a near-perfect imitation coming from a bird.

"I don't get what the joke is," Toph replied in confusion.

(Eh, don't sweat it,) Hawk Boy assured her. (You're hardly the only one of us around here that fails to be impressed by Marco's attempts at humor.)

"Ha ha Bird-boy," Marco replied. Switching to thought-speak, he said, (You're just jealous cause all you can do is manage a few screeches.)

(Pfff. Jealous of you Marco? Of you? Don't flatter yourself.)

"So what brings you over here Smart Aleck?" Toph asked as she took another bite of her rabbit.

(Had a successful expedition to 'kill da wabbit,' I see,) he commented as he began to demorph, thin raven legs becoming longer and putting on muscle as his breastbone slowly receded into his chest.

"Yep, went out and took it down myself in goshawk morph. You want any?"

(Nope, I'm fine. Anyway, I'm just stopping by to say hi and grace this place with my awesomeness.)

"Awesomeness? Let's see you do some earthbending first-then we can talk about your awesomeness," she sneered half-scornfully.

(Ooh, there's a high mark to aspire to,) Tobias muttered.

(Hey, no need to be so narro-) he began, but then his thought-speak was cut off as he became more human.

"Narrow-minded mam," he finished once his mouth was mostly human. "Just because I can't toss rocks around with my mind doesn't mean I'm not mega-awesome at plenty of other things."

(Well, in your own mind at least,) Hawk Boy muttered, causing Toph to snicker along with him.

_That's so much like something Sokka would say, _she thought.

"So funny I forgot to laugh Bird-boy," he replied dryly as Toph felt him begin to walk toward her. "Okay if a handsome guy like me joins a lovely girl like you on this pleasant evening?"

"I suppose," the earthbender replied, turning her head to the side and pretending to brush her hair forward as a pretext to conceal the light blush spreading across her cheeks. _Oh Tu Gong..._

The idea of having him sit next to her was an appealing one though. Very appealing.

(Earth to Marco, she's blind dude,) Hawk Boy snorted. (How's she gonna be able to tell if you're handsome?)

"Because it just radiates off of me wherever I go Bird-Boy, that's how," he smugly replied. She could feel his heart beating faster with eagerness as he strode up to her and sat down on her left side.

On a whim, she reached out with a grimy left hand and _pulled_ slightly, bending out a short vertical rectangle of stone from the cave floor for Smart Aleck to lean back against.

"Wow, nothing like having a telekinetic chick as a hostess, is there Tobias? She even makes her own furniture for the guests! And I just love how you've spruced up the place with your new line of Granite Edition shelves! Adds a real woman's touch to this dingy old cave."

Toph laughed, saying, "Funny Smart Aleck, but if you wanted a _real_ woman's touch applied to this cave, you'd be way better off with Sugar Queen or my mom instead. I'm strictly down to basics," she said, spitting out a piece of rabbit bone off to her right.

"Well, nothing wrong with that."

(Still all quiet on the western front with the slugs?) Tobias asked.

"Far as I know, which is always good," Marco replied as he scratched his nape. "I like quiet."

(Well, how was your nice quiet day then, Senor Marco?)

"It went okay. Professor Robinson had us team up in pairs for lab today and dissect these mackerel that absolutely _reeked _to high heaven of formaldehyde." Starting to laugh, he went on, "And guess who I get as my partner? Heather del Fuente, who I've decided is like the biggest pansy _ever_ when it comes to gross dead things."

(A quality you and your twisted sense of humor took advantage of, no doubt,) Tobias said dryly.

"Damn right I did Bird-boy," he chuckled as Toph ate more of her rabbit. "You should've seen her reaction when I made the fish's head 'kiss' her hand when she wasn't looking. Priceless!"

As he rattled on, the earthbender could tell through her seismic sense that part of his attention was fixed on her, and she knew when he oh-so-casually moved his right foot to the side until it brushed up against her left shin.

The contact, the deliberateness of the action, came as something of an unexpected shock to Toph, and her breath caught in her throat as her own heartbeat sped up.

But she made no sound of protest. And she decided not to pull away as her lips curved in the most subtle of smiles.

* * *

**If you want to see for yourself a great example of just how kick-ass goshawks are on the hunt, go to YouTube and type in "goshawk hunting." Then go to the video titled Goshawk Hunts Hare and Pheasant. Awesome footage, awesome bird, and awesome music all combine to make it an EPIC video indeed!**

**The Golden Reed Pipe is an actual Chinese folktale, while tiecrel is the name for a male bird of prey.**

**Next chapter will feature some quality time with Toph's new Thai friends...and the reveal of the Yeerk plot which threatens their freedom.**


	23. Chapter 23

**I'm really sorry guys. I honestly thought I would have a fight scene between Toph and some Controllers to finish this chapter up. Unfortunately, this time it just got too long, and I also just got too burnt out. So I ended it at a good spot and cut my losses.**

* * *

Panting from exertion, a big black German Shepherd cross loped across a side street, through a backyard, and then up to the back gate of the tall chain link fence which surrounded Olivia Ting's property.

"ROWF! ROWF!" it went.

There was a hurrying of footsteps, then a _click_ as Olivia opened the sliding glass door to the basement and stepped outside, wearing a simple T-shirt and gym trunks.

Her dark almond-shaped eyes widened in recognition as she saw the dog sitting outside the chain link.

"Sirius!" she cried as she walked over to the gate and opened the latch. "There you are! You had me so worried, running away like that last night," she sighed in a release of pent-up tension as she quickly shut the gate before kneeling to joyfully embrace the excited dog.

Standing up, her holographic face grew sterner and her voice low as she told the dog, "You know you're not supposed to get out of the yard and run loose, right Sirius? It makes Mama so upset and worried!"

The Lab mix submissively withered underneath her displeased gaze, laying its ears back and giving an apologetic "Rrrrreeeerrrrwww rrrrrreeeeerrrrrwww."

Olivia's face softened and she gave a resigned, you're forgiven-this-time-type of sigh before saying, "It's all right boy. Just don't run off again, okay? Now let's go inside and get you some breakfast after your adventure," she proposed, heading back inside with the black dog and shutting the door behind them as high in the morning sky, a male northern harrier gracefully wheeled in a wide half-circle and glided back toward the mountains.

It seemed like just another typical scene in a suburban neighborhood. Once they'd moved away from any windows though, the black dog silently said (Hey Olivia. Mmmm, I think I smell a fresh breakfast waiting for me upstairs,) as her canine muzzle began to recede back into her face. The Chee's dogs, (including the real, male Sirius, who'd actually spent last night snoozing next to the coffee table,) stared, confused and mystified, as Toph's body emerged from her morph.

"Zaoshang hao Toph," the droid warmly replied. "_And yes, I cooked some you tiao with plain jook and some curried chicken just a little while ago._"

(Awesome. Love curried chicken,) Toph said as she continued to demorph, lurching upright.

"_You told me you planned to go hunting for your dinner last evening,_" Olivia said conversationally. "_Were you successful?_"

"_Sure was Metal Dog,_" Toph proudly replied after the change was complete, leaning her head back to itch her scalp before digging in her right ear. "_Transformed into a goshawk and chased down a rabbit in the forest. Between the three of us, we got it prepared and cooked up,_" she told her as she walked over to the foot of the stairs and found, then grasped, the rail before going up.

In the kitchen Olivia set a place for the bender and served her breakfast with a glass of pleasantly cool soy milk, then at Toph's request put her long hair into a braid while she ate.

"_Mindy called last night, just so you know,_" the Chee mentioned as she twisted both sheaves of hair around each other.

Excitement flared up within the earthbender, then disappointment right after as she said, "_You mean she stopped by here while I wasn't around?! Ta made niao_," she growled in displeasure.

"_She called on the telephone device actually,_" Olivia patiently corrected.

"_Oh yeah, that crazy voice-moving machine,_" Toph remembered. "_Anyway, what did she call about?_"

"_Well, she called to ask if she, Dan, and their family could come here for dinner tonight."_

That was unexpected. _"She did?"_ Toph said, surprised. "_Wow, they just can't come and get to know me better fast enough, can they?"_ she laughed, causing Yzark to laugh as well.

"_Anyway, what did you tell Mindy when she called?_"

"_I said that that would be perfectly fine on your behalf and we'd enjoy having them here," _the droid replied. "_But if you like,_" she added, suddenly somewhat hesitant, _"I can still call Nimnuan and can-_"

"_Ah-ah. Don't even think about doing such a thing,_" Toph firmly cut in. "_This'll be a great time! All I have to do is tell Hawk Boy and Ax about it so they'll know not to expect me in the evening._"

It occurred to her then that the dinner plans might interfere with Olivia's job at the gambling place where she worked.

The droid must've perceived her thoughts somehow, for then she said, "_Don't worry about my job either. I called the casino earlier and asked my boss if I could take my evening shift off, which was fine with her._"

"_That's good to know_," Toph sighed in relief on Yzark's behalf. She sure didn't want her to lose her job over this, after all.

After finishing her breakfast, the earthbender listened to more of Yzark's memories of living for centuries in China, the nation that was so much a replica of her own world. They were amazing to hear, tales of the Great Wall of China, dragon dances, lanterns, the Forbidden City, emperors and warlords, kung fu and other martial arts, pandas, rebellions, tigers, lion dances, Kublai Khan, missionaries, explorers, and other initial contacts with Europeans, and how eventually the droid, deciding at last that she'd seen more than enough of the place, had crossed a vast ocean called the "Pacific" in 1878, arriving two months later in a nearby coastal city called "San Francisco."

She'd "lived" in California ever since, successively playing the parts of four Chinese-American women over those long decades. (Toph was more than a little both viscerally impressed and taken aback to hear the Chee's primal recordings of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, of hundreds of tons of concrete and stone splitting and cracking and twisting and falling. It had been such an apocalyptic event that even the durable droid had had some doubts at the time about whether she'd make it out in one piece.)

Later, the earthbender played tug-of-war and fetch with the dogs in the yard while Olivia made some pork and vegetable egg rolls for her lunch, along with some hot and sour pork soup. After having lunch, she went up to the guest bedroom and morphed the raven again, flying out the window under Yzark's hologram.

Although she'd expected to have to fly all the way back to the forest, luck was with the earthbender this time, for she didn't have to fly too far to the east before she noticed a male northern harrier and a red-tailed hawk soaring on a nearby thermal, spaced apart but still fairly close together.

Pleased to see them, she hailed both her friends and joined them, filling them in on her plans for the evening. Then she spent about an hour or so soaring and gliding alongside Tobias and Antelope Boy.

She spent the time commenting on and asking questions about the things she was seeing below, or making small talk about the things she'd recently learned/experienced before Ax finally had to head back to his scoop and demorph, at which point Toph figured she'd better do the same. Besides, she had guests to get ready for.

* * *

_Mindy Thongchai_.

(_Translated from Thai_)

Dear Diary,

Today we all went to Olivia Ting's house tonight for dinner and to spend time both with her and our new friend Zhenzhu. (Our dad says it's good to have Chinese people for friends, because they're smart and they work hard.)

Since it was the first time we'd ever gone there, it took our mom a little while to find where their house was, but Olivia had given her directions over the phone, so we got there in time.

We were all really excited, but especially our little brother, Phet. When mom parked the car in the driveway, he was out of the car like a shot, running up to the fence and pressing the button on one of its posts.

Dogs began to bark inside, and he just happily shouted, "Doggies Mom!" as we went up to the gate too and Olivia opened the door.

"Hello Daniel and Mindy," she said happily. "And you must be Nimnuan. Nice to have you all here. Come in!"

"Nice to meet you too," Mom replied. "You know my other children, and this is my youngest son, Phet."

Phet was already opening the gate, and we followed him.

Olivia must really like dogs, because she had four of them in the house, which all came up to us when we took our shoes off in the entryway, including a pitbull-but she turned out to be pretty nice. (Back in Thailand, most dogs either live on the streets or wander around wherever they want and often aren't very friendly. And what's really scary is that a lot of them have rabies too. One of my mom's friends had a cousin who died from rabies he got from an untreated dog bite!)

Then we heard Zhenzhu say "Hey guys. Glad you could show up," as she came down the stairs, dressed in an orange tank top and khaki shorts, her hair in a long braid.

"Zhenzhu! How's it going?!" Dan said. My brother's like that, always first to greet someone before I do.

"Going good," she shrugged as she got to the bottom of the staircase. "And like I said, great you and the family could come."

Then Mom introduced herself, smiling as she briefly bowed and said enthusiastically, "So you must be Zhenzhu, the girl I've heard so much about!"

"Uh yeah, that's me," she said.

Phet meanwhile, had torn himself away from the dogs long enough to rejoin us, coming up behind Mom and standing behind her as he silently checked Zhenzhu out.

"I'm Nimnuan if you haven't heard yet, and this is Phet, my youngest son," she said as she gestured to him. "Say hello Phet."

"Hi Zhenzhu," he went politely. "I'm seven!" he added proudly.

"Cool. I'm fourteen," Zhenzhu smiled back at him.

"Well, food's ready if you want to get started," Olivia announced.

Dinner was pretty good. Olivia served sliced beef in curry paste with chopped potatoes and peanuts with white rice, with cream cheese wontons for an appetizer and fried bananas for dessert.

Both Daniel and I noticed that even though Zhenzhu isn't all that tall, she can really pack the food in. I'd guess that either she didn't get fed much at the orphanage and is now making up for lost time, or more likely that she's just really active and needs the calories. She's certainly pretty muscular and strongly built for a girl her age. I wonder if she does martial arts?

It was no secret why Mom ate a lot though. Being almost eight months pregnant (I hope it's a sister!) will do that to you.

As we ate, Mom told Olivia about her life in Pattaya, our dad, how she'd moved here to start her business as a handbag designer, and how it was going.

Olivia talked about her own job as a blackjack dealer at the nearby casino, how she'd come to adopt Zhenzhu, and her beloved dogs.

We and Phet though, just talked with Zhenzhu about normal teenager stuff, about what Pattaya was like, life at our new school, what we all thought of America, taught each other new words in both Thai and Mandarin, made comments about how good dinner was.

I don't want to sound mean here, and I'd never want her to find out, but Zhenzhu can come across as kind of well, dense sometimes. What I mean by that is that often she'd seem to struggle to understand words, concepts, machines, and other things that you'd think even a girl with her upbringing would be very familiar with.

For instance, when we told her that Mom's handbags were made on an assembly line, you could tell that she had no idea what we were talking about, even though she tried to pretend like she did.

But we didn't want to make her uncomfortable or angry by saying out loud that she must be pretty ignorant, or what sort of a childhood did she have, although Daniel and I talked about it privately when we got back home. (He thinks Zhenzhu must have suffered some type of brain damage as a baby or toddler that messed up her long-term memory, and that's probably close to the truth. Again though, we'd never, ever say that around her, because that would hurt her feelings.)

Still, that doesn't mean she's stupid. And the more we talked, the more Daniel, Phet and I liked her even more. She comes across to me as really confident (Sure wish I could be like that), strong and mature, honest about how she sees things, has a sharp wit, and you just get a sense from her that she's very loyal. She also has a great sense of humor and fun.

After dessert, we cleared our places at the table. Then Zhenzhu led us out into the yard to have fun while Mom helped Olivia clean the dishes and Olivia started telling her about how she was part of Oprah's Book Club and how Mom should join up too.

We played several rounds of a game called Hawk Attacks the Chicks. Daniel played the part of the hawk in the first one, while Zhenzhu played the part of the mother hen. Phet and I were the chicks "hiding" behind her, with me hanging on to the back of her tank top and Phet hanging on to the back of my gold t-shirt.

The object of the game is that the Hawk and Hen face each other, and the kid playing the hawk tries to get past the one playing the hen to touch one of the chicks while the hen tries to block them by dodging and holding out their arms as the chicks hang on. If the hawk "gets" a chick, that kid must leave the line and get behind them instead. It was exciting, and Phet especially enjoyed it.

Then we taught Zhenzhu a game from our country called "One Legged Rabbit." It's great fun, but if you're one of the "rabbit" team, it sure is hard not to give in to the urge to use both legs or switch from one to the other. You're likely to fall down a lot too!

Oh, and there's another thing I found kind of strange.

Most of the time when you visit friends at their house, they show you their bedroom or at least don't mind if you go check it out.

But Zhenzhu never asked if we wanted to see her room at any time when we were at her place.

In fact, when Daniel asked about seeing what her room was like, she just simply yet firmly told us that she kept that door locked and sorry, but we couldn't go in. There wasn't anything like toys or pets or a stereo in there that would interest us anyway.

It was odd, like I said, and Daniel even jokingly asked her if she had a magic rose in there like the Beast in the Disney movie. She just laughed it off and asked us if we wanted to play fetch with Sirius now.

I guess she has her reasons for not wanting anybody but her and Olivia to go into her room though. Sometimes even people who seem very open and friendly can still be extremely private about certain things, and I can understand that. And maybe she has something in there that would majorly embarrass her if other people found out about it, or she's worried might get stolen. Perhaps she was even abused at some time in the past before being adopted, and now her room is like a psychological "safe zone" for her, where intruders just don't belong, even if they're nice and decent.

I just hope she'll eventually learn to trust us enough to allow us in sometime.

Still, I'd say overall we all had a blast together at her house, eating and playing and talking.

It was lots of fun, and all four of us were bummed when Mom opened the door and announced that we had to get ready to leave and go home. But oh well, we've all got to get a good sleep for school tomorrow, and besides, we'll be seeing her next night to go bowling together!

Daniel and I can hardly wait!

* * *

_Jake._

Way before the Ellimist sent Toph to join us Animorphs, Marco already had the monopoly on nicknames. He's sure given me quite a few. Fearless Leader, Big Jake, Jake the Mighty, General Jake.

General Jake. I'll admit a part of me secretly sort of likes the sound of that last one. Certainly, if we are somehow able to win this war, a lot of people are going to see me that way. Whether I deserve the moniker is a different matter altogether.

But even a general, no matter how dedicated to the cause, needs some time away from the battlefield, a chance to do something normal and have a life now and again.

And it's even better when you can do it with one of your parents and a new friend...even if she's blind, comes from another planet, maybe even another reality for all I know, and can shatter solid stone with her psychic energy. I'll guarantee James Randi, psychic claim debunker extraordinaire, would have a complete conniption if he ever saw Toph at work.

I'd managed to do fairly well at keeping up with my homework over the past few weeks, so when I'd asked my dad Sunday night if we could take time to go bowling at Blue Oak Lanes on Wednesday night, he agreed. I'm sure the fact that I was actually expressing interest for the first time in ages in enjoying a father-son activity with him played a significant part too.

Then I gave him a carefully edited account of how I'd met Toph, or "Zhenzhu" while hanging out with Marco about two weeks ago, and that we'd all gotten to know each other well enough by now that I'd asked her if she'd like to go bowling sometime. So could she come to the bowling alley too? Oh, and if it was all right, she wanted to bring two other friends along with her.

Both Dad and Mom thought that was a wonderful suggestion, and praised me for what they saw as a noble gesture, extending a hand of friendship to one of the newest Americans and even more gallantly, to her two friends who I'd never even met, offering to show them a good time.

"Well, I guess all those issues of Highlights you two bought ended up doing some good after all," I quipped.

Tom, or more technically the vile Yeerk in his head, snorted as he said sardonically, "Yeah, if you count turning out just like Goofus to be a good thing."

"Pfft. If anyone's like Goofus it's you dude," I shot back. "I mean, was _I_ the one who thought it would be a good idea to take my set of Crayola markers and draw a picture of a 'jagular' on my bedroom wall-parrots and palm trees included?"

"I was seven and a half, okay?" the Yeerk protested through Tom's lips. "Cut me some slack here midget."

_I'd rather cut you into mincemeat slug_, I thought, the coal of anger smoldering in my belly once more.

"Oh Gosh, I remember that," Dad said, shaking his head even as he chuckled. "Took a hell of a lot of careful scrubbing to get that particular mural off."

"Anyway," Tom said in slight annoyance as he changed the subject, "bowling is cool and everything, but if Zhenzhu and the Thongchai twins _really _want to enjoy themselves and have fun together, and make even more friends in America, they should come check out The Sharing. You should tell them about it Big Jake, and maybe even come with them too! It's a great group for immigrants to join."

"I'll let them know," I said coolly. _Yeah, when elephants learn how to fly like Dumbo._

At last the day arrived.

We'd set up a plan where Dad and I would go to the bowling alley on our own, while Olivia would leave with Toph from her house, then pick up Mindy, Dan, and Phet from a transit bus stop before dropping all three of them off in the parking lot. Later, when we'd played through our two frames, we'd all get in my Dad's station wagon and he'd drop Toph, Phet, and the twins off at Olivia's home before heading back to ours. Nimnuan would come to get her kids shortly after.

As for Tom, he'd elected to stay at home, working on a paper for his College Prep class, fortunately.

Dad and I got there first, and after he displayed his pass to the guy at the encounter, we got and put on those clown shoes you have to wear to keep from damaging the wood, picked out decent bowling balls for ourselves, and then waited for the others to show up while I had a Pepsi.

Toph and the Thongchai siblings showed up with Olivia a little later, and I raised my hand to let them know where we were.

After everyone had been introduced to each other, Olivia told her charges to "have fun," before leaving, and I helped Toph get a pair of lane shoes in her size. During that time, she privately told me that she was wearing colored contacts which Olivia had bought for her at a costume store, so no one would notice when she carefully morphed, then demorphed, a pair of working eyes.

Definitely a brilliant idea there on the Chee's part.

Like the theme song for The Flintstones says, we all had "a gay ol' time" bowling together. After Dad and I explained the general concept of the game and what the best way to throw the bowling ball was, we all got started.

I played on one lane with my dad and Daniel, while Toph played on another with Mindy and Phet. Although it'd been a while, I still got three good strikes and four spares during the first frame. Daniel did okay too, and I saw him get a couple strikes himself, which isn't bad at all for a beginner.

But my dad beat both of us that time, getting so many points it was just humiliating.

As for Toph, she definitely came out first in that frame. Part of the reason was obviously thanks to her physical fitness and coordination, but there's no doubt she must've used her crazy psychic earthbending powers on the bowling ball too to make sure it hit the pins hard and square. Not that I could exactly call her out on it.

After we'd finished the first frame, we took a break while Dad ordered two sausage pizzas from the place's concessions menu, which we then enjoyed for dinner. When it was all eaten, we left the tables to play one more frame.

I'm pleased to say that I ended up beating Dad on that one. Daniel still came third-but he also got a good deal more pins then he had on the first go-round. Toph must've decided not to use her bending to secretly give herself an unfair advantage this time, because now it was Mindy who got the highest score.

Then we put our street shoes back on, and our bowling balls and shoes away before heading out the door, boasting and talking about our scores or what we thought of bowling as a game.

Then, suddenly something tacked on the bulletin board in the entryway caught my eye. Among all the flyers for maid services and used cars and church dinners and missing pets was one with two words at the bottom which made my breath catch in my throat.

And what was even worse, Daniel, innocent and naïve of what it truly hid, noticed it too.

"Hey Mindy, look at this," he told his sister as he stopped and peered closer. "This looks like a cool thing to do over the weekend."

She came over and began to read. "Come to Sharktooth Hill Camp on Saturday the 16th for music, an evening barbecue, pumpkin carving, or our harvest picnic! Explore a cabin made up into a haunted house and go bobbing for apples, go on a nature hike, or search for the fossil shark teeth that give our camp its name in the hills and gullies, guided by an experienced fossil collector. Maybe you'll even find a piece of whale bone! Come enjoy the day with your new pals from The Sharing. Event begins at 9 AM."

Toph of course, couldn't read so much as a letter. But she still knew perfectly well what the folks at The Sharing truly were...what they would try to do to as many of the people who came to this event as they could.

As soon as Mindy mouthed the words, she gave a soft, short gasp and glanced more in my general direction then actually at me. It wasn't like she was exactly used to holding someone's gaze after all.

Cool as she tried to be about it, I could still see her body become tense and almost tingle with both rage and hatred as the understanding swept over her. And the rawest sort of concern and fear for her new friends.

* * *

_Toph Beifong._

It was the day that the other Animorphs call Thursday, exactly a week after the Ellimist had sent me to Earth.

Boss Boy had called a meeting at Sunshine's place after he and everyone else who actually had to go to school were let out for the day, and I showed up with Ax and Hawk Boy.

Since Sunshine's mom was at work and her dad was off doing something or other in town, we were all meeting in her bedroom. Still, Antelope Boy was in his human morph and Tobias was lurking near an open window, just in case her dad showed up.

I was my ordinary blind self, sitting back against a bookshelf as Jake told everyone about the Sharing event the slugs were putting on for the weekend.

"Okay," he said from where he was seated on the floor, "now that we're all here, while Toph and I were leaving the bowling alley last night, I saw a flyer advertising a big get-together being put on by The Sharing this Saturday."

"Do the activities at this 'bowling alley' involve knocking things over in a narrow and enclosed street?" Antelope Boy wondered.

(More like throwing something at a bunch of smaller things to knock them over in a building, Ax-man,) Hawk Boy helpfully told him.

"I think I saw one of those fliers at the grocery store too," Tough Girl mentioned.

"And let me guess, Xena and Miss Daredevil are already itching to smash the place up before this event can take place," Smart Aleck dryly said.

"You got it Smart Aleck," I told him, grinning as I gave him a thumbs-up.

"Where's the event being held?" Cassie asked.

"I think it said Sharktooth Hill Camp," I replied, prodding my memory as my forehead furrowed. "Not that I've got any idea where that place is," I shrugged.

(Well I do,) Hawk Boy said. (It's a wilderness camp, and my uncle sent me off there once for a month one summer. It's about ten miles northeast of here...)

His head-talk trailed off as the same thing dawned on both of us and I blindly "glanced" at him, even as I'm sure he was looking at me.

We both blurted it out at the same time.

(The limo!)

"That limo-whatever!"

"Limo? Say what now?" Smart Aleck said in puzzlement.

"You can tell them Hawk Boy," I said as I picked my right great toe.

(When I was showing Toph the way to Olivia's house in raven morph on Monday morning,) Tobias explained, (we saw a black limousine making its way out of town in a general northeast direction. I-we didn't know exactly what to make of it at the time, but now I'd bet money that was Visser Three heading there to check out the preparations, see how things are going.)

"Well, if Visser Three's involved in this, it's gotta be fairly important then," Marco commented.

"Yes," Antelope Boy agreed. "Ess. That is quite a satisfying mouth sound, reminiscent of snakes," he said happily. Getting back on track, he asked his pal, "I would presume this 'wilderness camp' is relatively isolated?"

(Yep. Surrounded by nothing but deep woods.)

"Deep woods, huh?" Rachel said thoughtfully. "And all those cabins. Sounds like a perfect place and the perfect chance to make quite a lot of people into Controllers," she said darkly.

I felt a small chill as something twisted in the pit of my stomach. Mindy and Daniel might be going there!

Staying calm, I said, confused, "But I thought the Yeerks only used The Sharing as a way to _convince_ people to become Controllers, not infest them by force."

"Normally they don't," Sunshine replied from her bed. "It's a lot easier for them if someone willingly submits from the beginning, after all. But they're also opportunists, and they won't pass up a chance to infest a bunch of hosts at once if they can help it."

"Yeah," Smart Aleck agreed. "They could easily gain several dozen new human-Controllers from this fall celebration alone."

"Well, if this is big enough of a deal that Visser Three is probably involved, than that means they'll probably have a portable Yeerk Pool all ready to go somewhere in one of the camp's bigger buildings," Boss Boy surmised. "Unfortunately, we don't know which one that could be."

"What sort of activities were advertised on this announcement Prince Jake? Perhaps that might provide a clue," Ax helpfully suggested.

"Don't call me Prince," Jake wearily grumbled. "Anyway, let me think back for a second here."

"Uh-oh. Better get the first aid kit out before he faints from all the strain Cassie," Marco teased, which made me laugh a bit.

"Ffft, it's _your_ health we're the most concerned about Marco," Rachel snorted. "Especially your mental health."

"Oh, you're just jealous because the warthog people will only reveal themselves to me," he yawned casually.

"The haunted house," Boss Boy said suddenly. "They'll have a haunted house there, and that's _got_ to be where they'll be keeping the Yeerk Pool."

"You go in expecting to see zombies and werewolves, but come out as a Controller," Marco said gravely. "Fortunately though, we now have someone on our team who can destroy that pool and the Yeerks inside it with just a little psychic energy and her bare hands," he added eagerly.

"Just give me a time and a plan and I'll give those slugs a surprise they'll never forget," I said confidently, smacking my fist into my palm as I grinned.

"You mean _we'll _give them a surprise they'll never forget," Tough Girl added with excited glee. "I know I _definitely_ want to be there to see the looks on their faces when you dominate them with your earthbending-and kick my share of butt too. They'll have no clue," she laughed.

"Hey, that's totally cool with me. I mean, my philosophy about fighting is, the more friends you have kicking butt with you, the more fun it is."

"Good grief, you two could be members of an Amazon brigade," Marco commented wearily.

"Speaking of fighting, Ax, how much resistance do you think we'll have to deal with to get to the pool in this building?" Jake asked.

I heard cloth rasp as Antelope Boy shrugged his human shoulders.

"I cannot say for certain Prince Jake," he responded. "But considering the vulnerability of the unhosted Yeerks and their strategic importance, I'd presume they will be ready for an attack and so it will be fairly heavily guarded...but not by so many Controllers that it would generate suspicion among uninfested employees or the participants."

"Any specific idea of how many that would boil down to?" Jake pressed.

"Especially our favorites, Hork-Bajir," Smart Aleck muttered.

"I would estimate a total of four human-Controllers, with at least two or three Hork-Bajir inside, and perhaps a single Taxxon," he guessed.

(And Visser Three might be around too,) Hawk Boy added, (although it's always hard to say with him. The guy's got a lot on his plate after all.)

"Think you can handle that many?" Boss Boy said as I sensed him glance at me.

"Shouldn't be a problem," I grinned back at him.

"This won't be anything like fighting firebenders," Sunshine warned me. "You might be able to deal with the normal guns and bullets just fine, but they'll have Dracon Beams too, and they'll rip through any stone shields you bend out like they were paper."

"And that goes for your body too," Rachel added. "Getting nailed by one is awfully hazardous to your health, we can all testify to that."

"I'm sure it is," I replied. "Still, as long as the Controllers are on solid ground, I should be able to sense them raising their weapons with my earthbending and take them out before they can shoot."

"But not all of them might come outdoors where you can use your bending," Smart Aleck pointed out. "At least a few of them will probably stay right with the pool no matter what, and Hork-Bajir can climb too."

He made a good point. I shrugged. "In that case, I don't know. I guess you guys will have to either draw them out or take them down yourselves."

Boss Boy gave a thoughtful sigh. "Guess it's settled then. Since this event is taking place on Saturday, we'll meet tomorrow back at the barn after school and then morph bird to fly to the camp. Then we'll see how much of a monkey wrench we can toss into their infestation plans after we land."

I knew that a lot of this plan would be resting on my shoulders, and I also knew I couldn't _wait _to show these Yeerks who the new boss around here was tomorrow!

"Sweet. Let's do it," I eagerly smiled.

"Yep, let's do it," Tough Girl agreed.

"Oh boy, nothing like reckless insanity squared," Marco sighed.

* * *

**As always, reviews make my day happy and bright!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Well, at long last, after 23 chapters, 7 months of writing and overzealous guessing, the moment you've all been waiting for, the chapter where Toph engages in Yeerk butt-kicking has been signed, sealed and uploaded! Enjoy the action and then tell me how you liked it.**

* * *

_Rachel_

"A summer camp. Remember when the only things kids had to worry about at summer camps were mosquitoes and Jason from the Friday the 13th movies?" Marco sighed wearily as we walked into the trees.

"Who's Jason?" Toph asked in puzzlement, dressed in her purple leotard.

It was Friday evening, and we were headed to our usual jumping-off point for missions, the woods behind Cassie's pastures, preparing to morph birds and follow Tobias to the wilderness camp.

Cassie herself wasn't with us. Her parents had been invited to a fish fry and harvest event at a sort of farm which grows fish in ponds and also has a big apple orchard, and they'd insisted she come along with them, which was fine with Jake.

"The Curse of Crystal Lake my lovely lady," Marco replied. "The mask-wearing, machete-swinging, ax-hacking stalker of oblivious teenagers."

Her cheeks reddened a bit in shyness at his comment before she asked, her eyebrows arching slightly, "You mean this dude's _real_? Why would anyone go to a camp at all then? Not that I'm worried of course," she added. "If anybody was ever dumb enough to come after me with an ax, I'd just rip it out of their hands with my metalbending and toss it back at them!"

"I'd pay to see that," Jake laughed. "But no, Jason's definitely not real."

(We might've had different opinions about that when we were younger though,) Tobias commented as he sailed overhead and landed on the limb of a big cedar about seventy feet in front of us. (Or at least I did.)

(I have never quite understood,) Ax commented, (why you humans actually find it _pleasurable_ to willingly subject yourself to the psychologically disturbing sounds and traumatic imagery in these fictional representations of violence for entertainment.)

"We humans just get off on some weird things I guess," Marco shrugged. "All I know is that watching a good slasher film gives me a pleasant dose of the creeps."

"Watching an episode of Sesame Street is enough to give you a dose of the creeps Marco," I huffed in mock scorn.

(I have a particular fondness for the character of Grover on that show,) Ax admitted. (Not only is he blue in color like an Andalite, but he also possesses a high intelligence and commendable passion for educati-)

"Uh, people, can we break off the media discussion here for just a moment?" Jake asked, holding up his hand. We did so. "I think we're far enough in, so let's get this show started," he said.

I slipped off my shoes, then focused deep down, on the bald eagle's DNA within me, and felt the changes begin.

Most of the time, morphing is never consistent. It isn't logical in what parts change first or how, and it certainly isn't graceful.

Trust me on this. The wildest fever dream, the most toe-curling special effects in any movie, the works of surrealist painters are only a pale mockery of what it's like to watch feathers sprout from someone's skin and clothing, their feet and toes transform into gnarled talons, their face warp and stretch into a horny beak.

Only two members of our little band can make the morphing process look halfway elegant. Cassie of course. And now Toph.

Now, bald eagles are pretty impressive as birds go. Still, even they're still a lot shorter than a person, so the first thing that happened was I began to shrink, the ground coming toward me like I'd just tripped over a log.

All over my body down to my ankles, my skin turned brown, like I'd been dipped in chocolate fondue, as my body hair disappeared.

A scalloped pattern rapidly etched itself all over my body, and I felt the familiar, short-lived but intense itching as it became three-dimensional plumage and I felt the wide fan of the eagle's tail feathers start to grow from my tailbone as my body pitched forward.

Marco generally morphs either a gull or an osprey, a bird of prey that only hunts live fish, whenever we need to use bird morphs. So when the feathers began to appear on his skin, I was somewhat surprised to see that they weren't the black and white ones of an osprey, but as black as tar.

"Good grief Marco, are you morphing a crow?" I asked him.

"Not a crow, a _raven_, Xena," he corrected. "Toph and I both acquired it last Saturday at Caaoorrkk-" he went as his lips melted away and fused with the teeth in his jaws, horn growing over the protruding mass as it bulged out from his face.

Toph meanwhile, was silent, watching us as she morphed goshawk. As she shrunk, her narrow, foggy green eyes widened in her face, then transformed into the penetrating, crimson red coals of the goshawk, moving away from each other as her hair was absorbed into her back and shoulders while her nose and mouth protruded out to form a sharp, ripping beak, just like mine was at the moment.

For a few seconds she was a three foot tall girl with a goshawk's head. A female Horus. And equally as mysterious and extraordinary as any Egyptian god.

Even as I continued to focus on becoming the bald eagle, as my ankles and feet warped and twisted into scaly, crooked bird toes the color of marigolds and ending in black talons that could go straight through the body of a large bass, questions and doubts raced through my head as I looked at her.

They certainly weren't about her fighting ability or how well she'd fit in with us, believe me. I had no doubt that she'd excel at the first thing and was doing great with the second. Heck, in some ways already I considered her just as much of a sister to me as Jordan or Sara.

Our war against the Yeerks has always been filled with danger and terror, more than most people will even start to understand. Every single time we so much as just take a look at what the Yeerks are doing, there's always a very real chance things could go terribly wrong.

We could get killed by human, Taxxon, or Hork-Bajir Controllers. We could get killed by Visser Three. We could get made into Controllers ourselves. We could get trapped in morph like Tobias, and yes, like what we did to David. We could get killed while in morph by free humans who have no idea what we really are. We could get killed by predators that view us as just another part of the food chain or as competition to be eliminated. We've even nearly gotten killed in simple, ordinary accidents.

We've been insanely lucky that each time, even if by the skin of our teeth, we've all come out alive, and Tobias has been our only casualty. So far at least.

But now there was a sense in the air, a vague understanding, that that could change in the near future. Especially for me.

We all knew the Ellimist had sent Toph here from whatever reality or universe or galaxy she called home to help us out. And by now we all knew her main objective was to fight alongside me and save me from-well, whatever situation or thing I wouldn't be able to fight my way out of otherwise.

As usual, the Ellimist had been infuriatingly vague on the details of that particular subject with Toph. Wasn't her fault that he/it was a teasing, cheating jackass though.

_Probably getting killed in some battle, _I thought. _There's no way I'd ever let a Yeerk slug get into my skull. None._

Everyone always says I'm mighty Rachel, so brave and fearless. Brave? I guess, but fearless? That's a laugh.

Anyone who does the sort of things we do on a weekly basis and doesn't constantly feel a background drone of terror while doing it, doesn't wonder, _Will this be it? Will this mission end with me dead?_, never feels so scared that they could almost just drop dead from the sheer fear, is as mad as the hatter from Alice In Wonderland.

And now, for me, Toph's presence was amplifying that background hum of agitation, with the knowledge that she was here because the Ellimist _knew for a fact _that I wasn't going to survive one of these battles. That fateful battle could happen within the week, or it might not happen until a year from now. But it would happen, and just because the Ellimist had sent Toph on my behalf, it still wasn't automatically a guarantee that she'd be able to get me out of it.

Fear is like a mouse, deep down inside you, that constantly gnaws at your gut whenever you're about to do something dangerous. I know that feeling well. We all do.

Now, as I watched Toph morph the goshawk, the awareness of why she was here and what it meant for my future transformed that mouse into a terrible rat.

But I told myself to be calm, take things one step at a time, and as I'd done so many times before, forced that rat of fear back underground and out of the way. Besides, we were going to attack a fairly lightly guarded Yeerk Pool at a summer camp, with lots of cabins and trees to provide cover. How hard could that be?

Within minutes, we'd all finished morphing, leaving a raven, a peregrine falcon, a northern goshawk, a northern harrier, and a bald eagle standing on the forest floor, with Tobias as himself perched up above.

I'd done this morph lots of times before, but it always still blows me away, how amazing the eagle's eyes are. It is like walking around with a pair of telescopes attached to your face, except you have a much broader field of view. I could see the individual feathers on a jay flicking through the leaf litter and screened by brush over a hundred yards to my left, it was that sharp.

The bald eagle's mind noticed all the other big birds around him. Irritating and unwelcome, especially the black one, but not really alarming. He was big, tough, and knew with utmost confidence that none would dare seriously challenge him. Still, he didn't like being here on the forest floor. There was no reason to be here in the first place, and he wanted to take to the sky, where he could keep to himself and look for an area near water.

(Okay Tobias,) Jake said. (Lead the way.)

Without a word, Tobias obligingly sprung off his perch and we followed, flinging ourselves into space and pumping our wings for altitude as we rose above the canopy, flaming with fall colors.

(The camp's about a dozen miles from here,) Tobias said as we joined him. (And of course, let's spread out a bit.)

The air was a bit chilly, so while there were still some thermals to take advantage of, we mostly had to either alternate between flapping to gain altitude and then gliding for long distances, or using updrafts where the wind collided with hills and slopes whenever we could. It was harder going.

Marco and Toph though, had an easier time of it.

Toph peeled off from us and headed back down into the trees. With my eagle eyes, I could see her now and again through the gaps in the leaves as she leveled off and exuberantly zipped and dodged among the trunks like a fish in a stream, enjoying the goshawk's unequaled agility. (Woooo!) she whooped in excitement. (Guys, the way this bird's body can move and twist is insane!)

Marco seemed to be enjoying himself too, flapping almost tirelessly with the raven's forceful, heavy wingbeats as he swooped down, then up, then down again, going (Whhheeeeee!) in our heads.

(Having fun Marco?) Jake asked good-humoredly. (You sound like a kid with a new toy there.)

(I sure am boss,) he playfully replied. (Man, I can't believe none of us ever thought of acquiring a raven morph before! Not only can they fly a lot farther and more strongly than our bird of prey morphs, these guys are like the dolphins of the air, always curious and wanting to have a good time. And it's hard not to resist the urge,) he added.

(Cool. Sounds like a morph the rest of us should look into then,) Jake commented.

(Isn't there a raven in The Hobbit?) I wondered. (And wasn't he like, super-old or something?)

(Yeah,) Jake said. (Roac, son of Carc, leader of the ravens of The Lonely Mountain, and so old he was balding and could only just manage to still fly. He was cool. But really, all the characters in that book are awesome.)

(Definitely. Gandalf just kicked so much ass,) Tobias added. (And even though he was kind of a self-important jerk, I really liked Thorin Oakenshield as a character too.)

(Yeah, Gandalf was cool,) I agreed. (But my favorites are Beorn, and the Great Eagles, for reasons that should be rather obvious. And Smaug. Yeah, I know he was the villain and killed practically all the dwarves, but still, you can't deny he was one awesome dragon.)

Below me, Toph laughed. (Too bad you guys aren't in my world. We actually have the real thing in the Fire Nation.)

That got our attention.

(You have real dragons in your world?!) Jake said in delighted astonishment. (Seriously?!)

(Now that's too cool!) I laughed.

(Oh man, actual dragons!) Marco crowed gleefully. (If what you're saying is true, I'd give my left arm to see one of those!)

(It_ is_ true, from what Zuko and Aang told me,) Toph said. (There's only two left that we know about-long story-but they saw them, and even lear-)

(There's the camp,) Tobias suddenly announced, cutting her off. (Right ahead.)

The camp was located on top of a broad ridge, gently sloping in both directions with a gravel road leading up to it along the ridge's southern crest.

About a mile and a half to the camp's north on the ridge, connected to it by a trail, was a half-eroded, lightly wooded, jagged looking hill. There was also a slow-moving stream which had worn out a gully at the bottom of the valley on the eastern slope of the ridge, facing the mountains. I guessed these were the places where campers and other people found the fossil shark teeth which gave the camp its name.

(Okay guys, remember to keep our distance as best we can now,) Jake reminded us.

As much as we'd prefer otherwise, the Yeerks are no fools. They know there's a nasty squad of enemies out there messing with them, and that they can show up as anything that draws breath. Anything.

So as we came closer, we split apart even more, and began to descend closer to the treetops in the evening light, using the setting sun to conceal our approach.

Still, we remained close enough to "talk," which Marco, being Marco, was quite happy to do.

(So, Bird-Boy, when you went to this place for your two weeks of camping, did you actually find any cool stuff in the ground?) Marco asked.

(Sure did. I found several teeth from an extinct kind of mako shark while I was there, a tiger shark tooth, and coolest of all, part of an extinct sea lion's lower jaw with one of the canine teeth and two molars still attached.)

(Can't say I'd mind finding those myself,) Jake said. (But now let's join Toph down in the trees before any Controllers notice us.)

And there were already Controllers to be seen.

Except a structure next to a solid ranch-style metal gate on the gravel road, the camp was composed of several log buildings which were more or less gathered around a central clearing in a three-quarter circle. There was a pit for bonfires in the middle with metal benches around it, and a sort of open, weathered wooden shed with firewood inside.

With my eagle eyes, I could see two guys in park police uniforms standing on each side of the access gate. Another two were standing at the entrance of a large, narrow building whose front was all decorated with fake cobwebs, plastic bats and spiders, a drooping plastic skeleton on each side of the double doors. Your typical kitschy Halloween décor.

(It seems like we will now have at least six human-Controllers to deal with Prince Jake,) Ax commented as we spiraled down through the canopy of rainbow leaves.

(Yeah, I saw,) Jake responded. (And that's not counting how many Hork-Bajir are guarding the pool inside. Still, it should be manageable.)

(Should being the operative word here,) Marco added grimly.

(Ah, you've got me with ya now, Smart Aleck,) Toph flippantly dismissed. (So there's no need to worry your little raven head.)

As we flew among the tree trunks, Jake told us his plan of attack, a fairly simple one. While continuing to use the trees as cover, we'd all split up and go in different directions.

Ax would demorph, and wait in the forest while Jake demorphed, then morphed rhino. Meanwhile, Toph would demorph as well, but stay in the cover of the trees.

As for Marco and I, we'd land in the woods behind the cabin which was serving as the haunted house, demorph, and then morph into our respective battle morphs.

When we were all in position, Ax would come at the front of the cabin from the left, while Jake would attack from the right, snorting to let all the Controllers know what was going on, which would draw the two Controllers at the gate, and as many of the ones inside out into the open as they could manage. Then Toph would deal with them as she liked.

While all this was going on, Marco and I would smash down the cabin's back door and take care of any Controllers that remained inside and tried to defend the pool. Tobias would help to coordinate things and strafe Controllers if needed.

As much as I really wished I could be in the frontal charge to watch Toph at work, I so couldn't wait to get the action started.

_Jake._

After making sure everyone knew their places and moments, I peeled off to the right and as slowly as I could manage without stalling, slid among the trees as I flapped my narrow peregrine wings, hoping the lengthening shadows near the ground would help conceal me.

I knew it was pretty unlikely that the two Controllers at the access gate, thanks to the incline of the ridge and the fact that it was about 250 feet from the actual camp, would see me when I broke cover and flew over to the woodshed near the fire pit. Besides, their attention would be fixed on anything coming up the road, or at least from the same direction.

It was the two park police guarding the haunted house I had to be concerned about. While by good fortune the back of the quasi-woodshed faced toward them at an angle that would conceal me just fine while I demorphed and morphed rhino, I'd still be exposed when I crossed the space between.

So I perched on a log, half-hidden by ferns and shrouded by the twilight, that wasn't far from the edge of the trees, and patiently waited.

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long for my moment.

The officer on the right must've felt like a snack, because I saw him stick his hand in his pocket after a few minutes, and rustle a bit before he extracted a Nature Valley granola bar and start to open it.

His partner clearly felt the same way, for he turned to look at him and I heard him ask, "That looks mighty good Eskath. It all right with you if I have that second bar?"

"Sure," Eskath replied.

_Okay Jake, now or never,_ I told myself, tensing as he took one bar out for himself and began to hand over the other.

I leapt into the air like a shot, and covered the distance to the wood shelter in less than two seconds, tossing my legs forward to absorb the impact as I landed.

I shook myself, and then demorphed, growing steadily taller as my beak became human lips and feathers melted back into my skin.

Then I focused on a morph I hadn't used for quite a while.

Normally I prefer the Siberian tiger as my battle morph of choice. It's strong, quick, well-armed, and I can do a lot of damage to a lot of Controllers very quickly in a fight.

This time though, the objective wasn't so much as to harm Controllers directly as to simply cause a commotion that would bring them running to where we wanted them. Or more accurately, where Toph wanted them.

And a southern white rhino was perfect for that.

I focused on the DNA of the great beast floating in my bloodstream.

Almost immediately, my skin began to turn tough, leathery. There's a reason rhinos are called pachyderms, or thick-skins, after all.

My body grew and grew and grew some more in girth and bulk, rapidly gaining several thousand pounds.

Yes, you heard me right. Several _thousand_ pounds.

The weight gain forced me to my hands and knees, which were already shortening and becoming the sturdy, stocky ones of the rhino as my ears slid up my head, which was being compressed forward even as it grew to the size of a beer keg.

The rhino I'd acquired had been a bull, and that meant certain, ah, parts, you only find on a bull rhino developed just behind my massive, beer gut belly.

I read once that traditionally, some African tribes would take a dead rhino bull's weiner, or a strip of rhino hide, stretch it out in the sun, and then let it dry to form a leather whip called a sjambok. They were mostly used for driving cattle, but a good blow from one will tear through your flesh like a Hork-Bajir's elbow blade.

That's probably more information than you needed.

I didn't have a sjambok at hand, but now an even better weapon began to sprout from twin depressions I could feel forming in the bones of my rhino face.

Those famous rhinoceros horns.

Rhinos are darn near blind even in broad daylight, and the setting sun sure didn't help anything.

So once the morph was complete, I took a few seconds to listen attentively with the rhino's swiveling, sensitive ears. Still no sign that any of the park officers had noticed me. Good.

(Rachel? Marco? You guys in morph and in position?) I asked them in private thought-speak.

(Locked and loaded, Fearless Leader,) I heard Marco confirm.

(Yep,) Rachel chimed in.

(Ax, you ready?)

(I am Prince Jake. Just give the signal.)

Again in private thought-speak, I told Toph, (I know you can't reply Toph, but Ax and I are seconds away from attacking the two guards. When you think the moment is right, just tell us to get out of the way and we'll let you do your stuff.)

Switching my thought-speak back to Ax as I took a huge breath through the rhino's apple-sized nostrils and tensed its massive muscles, I told him, (Okay Ax, NOW!) just before I wheeled and smashed through the shed's left side, racing right for the pair of startled Controllers.

* * *

Ignoring the threats, wails, and protests of the female Hork-Bajir who served as her host, Cabriss 294 shifted Krex Telat's body into the kangaroo half-crouch that all Hork-Bajir adopted whenever in a relaxed stance, propping herself with the host's softly lashing tail.

Still, she was vigilant, scanning through the Hork-Bajir's eyes and listening through her ears for anything that might hint at the presence of the Andalite bandits as her left hand clutched a Dracon beam.

The room she was in, festooned with fake cobwebs, plastic skulls, hanging ghosts constructed from cloth, latex devil heads, and other objects which symbolized or were associated with preposterous human superstitions and fears about death or potential harm, was illuminated by the soft, pleasant glow of a portable Kandrona, hanging over a large metal clawfoot bathtub, its contents roiling with seventy-seven of Cabriss's defenseless fellow Yeerks.

Besides Cabriss, three other Hork-Bajir Controllers stood watch around the clawfoot tub, while a lone Taxxon lay underneath it, her body partially wrapped around the legs like one of the great reptiles from human myth known as dragons guarding its hoard of treasure.

Raising her head, the Taxxon briefly spoke, inquiringly.

"Ssssaaaarrrr wwweeeeeeessss ssssshhhhaaa ttttrrrreeeessss?"

Cabriss only gave an irritated grunt before snapping, "Froina 571 already told that Andalites maybe come tonight. And yes, Fronia may eat if others kill bandit."

Satisfied, the Taxxon laid her head down once more.

_Just one more day without any problems,_ Cabriss thought and hoped. _Just several more of this Earth's "hours," until all of my people in the pool will have human hosts of their own, and then I'll be back on the Pool Ship where I won't have to worry about the Andalites attacking me. _

Suddenly, she snapped alert as she heard gunfire coming from the front of the building, Eskath 838 shout out, "Andalites!"

"Ka'naps!" Cabriss cursed in Yeerk as she leapt upright and her fingers squeezed around her weapon.

Immediately, their superior, Ochet 254, was all business.

Gesturing at the Taxxon and their two comrades, he snapped out, "You three stay with pool. Cabriss come with me."

"What if attack Andalite trick?!" Tornat 734 asked in concern. "What if Andalite come at pool through back door?"

Ochet hesitated briefly. "Then just shout and Ochet and Cabriss come to help," he assured them as Cabriss followed him through the door.

When they burst open the locked wooden doors and bounded out into the evening light, Cabriss was greeted by a spectacle of confusion and chaos.

One Andalite, in red-tailed hawk morph, was swooping down at a human-Controller that was aiming his .357 at another bandit in rhino morph as they galloped by, ripping his forehead open.

As the bandit glided back up into the sky, one of the human-Controllers who'd been stationed inside the building, armed with a shotgun, raised his weapon and swiveled, pulling the trigger as he aimed-only to have the point of an Andalite's tail blade go right through his hand.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" he cried in agony as he dropped the gun.

(Thanks Ax,) the bandit in hawk morph said.

Cabriss knew what to do, and leapt from the wooden porch with Ochet, her host's hearts pounding in fear and excitement.

The Andalite who was fighting in his natural body noticed them first.

(Hork-Bajir!) he snapped out, warning his comrades.

Cabriss leveled her Dracon beam, aimed at his chest in one fluid motion, and then fired, hoping to drill a lethal hole through the filth's torso.

But he'd seen it coming, and nimbly dodged as the pulse of energy came at him.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Ochet snap off a shot, grazing the rhino's left flank.

The other human-Controller who had a shotgun ran at the rhino and fired, catching it in the hip.

It obviously wasn't nearly enough to kill the bandit, but Cabriss was delighted all the same to hear them cry out in her head from pain and see him stumble heavily as blood began to run down his leg.

He must've had enough, for he clumsily turned and began to run, limping, back toward the demolished woodshed, using it as cover.

She heard Ochet cry out as he tried for another shot on the retreating rhino, but was raked across the shoulders by the bandit in hawk morph, his Dracon beam dropping to the ground.

Deciding Ochet could take care of himself, Cabriss decided to focus on the other Andalite, chasing after him as he also decided to cut and run, wildly firing with her own weapon.

Ha, they were winning! They were showing these Andalite scum a lesson, beating them back!

Even the hawk was moving away too! They didn't even have to use their blades.

Suddenly, Cabriss heard a terrible crunching of wood from the back of the building, and the roar of a bear.

The Andalite was forgotten as her host body's hearts seemed to leap up into its throat as she swiveled her serpentine neck and harshly screamed, "The pool! The pool!"

Desperately hoping she'd get there in time, she, Ochet, and every human-Controller who could still run raced back toward the cabin. She knew turning her back on any Andalite, whether in morph or not, during battle was an extremely foolish thing to do. But for the sake of her kin, it had to be done.

And then, as they all neared the cabin's porch, the ground suddenly and abruptly was yanked like a towel out from under their feet.

Confused, but still determined, Cabriss and her comrades got back up. Then, impossibly, shockingly, there was a powerful rumbling, a grinding, and a great barrier of stone rose between them and the cabin, cutting them off from the other Controllers!

"Must be a shock, huh slugs?" the mocking voice of a girl suggested.

Dumbfounded, Cabriss swung around to get a look at the speaker, even as the sounds of mayhem raged inside.

Only seventy feet away near the fire pit, head facing down, black hair lightly ruffled by the breeze, short and deadly in her purple leotard, Toph stood, her arms held out.

"So glad you guys could come out to play," she said, teeth bared in an excited grin.

* * *

Toph felt the power, the chi flow through her body, exciting and invigorating as she flung out her right arm and _pushed _through the stone, sending two pillars of rock up to smash into each Hork-Bajir's arm, sending their Dracon beams flying out of their hands.

She could feel their confusion, their shock, their fear about what she was, what she was doing.

One of the Hork-Bajir screamed, "_Garehas callanuh_!" before sensibly turning and running away, heading for the safety of the woods. A human-Controller promptly decided to follow suit. Smart move.

The other Hork-Bajir decided to charge her though, swinging its bladed arms and growling. Dumb idea.

Almost nonchalantly, Toph responded in kind by raising her own arms, palms up, and _pulling_ up two great slabs of rock, one on each side of the Hork-Bajir.

It was only then that the bladed alien seemed to think better of attacking.

Too late.

Coolly, Toph brought her palms together, and there was a sickening crunch, accompanied by a gargling scream as the Hork-Bajir was violently _smashed_ between both slabs like a spider between the pages of a hardcover.

At the same moment, she felt a human-Controller behind her that Boss Boy had wounded earlier in rhino morph get to his knees and raise something in his hands. Something metal.

The warning came back to her. _Gun! He's aiming at you with one of those gun things that blows holes in people!_

But Toph simply _pulled_ at the ground with her right foot, sliding out of the way as the park officer fired twice.

BANG! BANG!

His shots had been meant to catch her through at least one of her lungs.

Instead though, Toph heard one harmlessly buzz by the left side of her head, while the other slashed a fiery streak across the upper left side of her ribcage.

"Ow!" she yelped.

It was only skin deep though, and the jolt of pain just pissed her off.

In a fury, she wheeled, _pulling_ stone from the ground to form a layer of armor as she did so before stretching out her right hand and using her bending to rip the handgun from the Controller's hands.

As soon as it was in her own, she was using her seismic sense to feel around it, through it, know its shape.

And how it worked.

Sheathed by cracked stone, she clamped her hands on the pistol and extended it towards the Controller.

He'd tried to kill her, and now she returned the gesture, using her metalbending to pull the trigger three times.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

(Holy. Shit.) she heard Tobias gasp in thought speak.

(Whoa,) Jake said from somewhere nearby, equally flabbergasted.

She didn't answer or even pause to regard the dying man, the way his heartbeat and breathing became suddenly erratic, then began to rapidly slow, before crushing the gun with her bending, flinging it aside, and swinging back to face the remaining human-Controllers.

Bewildered and terrified, they simply stood and gawked at her, too scared to think about running-and where would it get them anyway?-and after what she'd just done, too wise to try to fire on her.

"B-by the Kandarona, what-what _are_ you?!" one of the park officers, knees shaking, querulously asked her.

Bending the stone far enough away from her face to move her lips, Toph's simple response was "I'm your eviction notice Yeerk. Now get out of my way if you have any sense in your slug brains," she growled as she bent a big boulder out of the ground and tucked it under her arm before skating over the dirt at them, free arm shooting outward.

The park officers all too gladly scattered like chickens in front of a car as Toph darted through them, punching through the stone barrier before pulling at the stone beneath her to propel herself up onto the wooden porch.

As she headed inside, she heard Ax running back in her direction, presumably to help drive the already fleeing Controllers away from the building.

As the sound of his hoofbeats came closer, she heard one of the guards say something even her sharp hearing couldn't catch, now that at least one wooden wall was blocking it.

But she certainly _did_ hear Antelope Boy's head-talk response as he laughed scornfully, saying, (Pitiful Yeerk fool. You think it never occurred to us Andalites, after all the attempts of your miserable scientists that we've sabotaged, to engage in some experimentation of our own?)

_Smart thinking Antelope Boy_, she thought approvingly. _Throw them off the scent and get em to believe I'm the only 'human' involved here._

Still wearing her stone armor, she pounded down the wide hallway, smashing through the partitions of plywood and particle board and posterboard that'd been set up to turn the place into a spooky maze.

When she drew close to where she thought the pool would be, she took the boulder out from under her arm and pulverized it to dust with her bending before flinging the results through the door, providing a smokescreen as she dove it through seconds later, eager for more action.

But as she leapt to her feet and got into a horse stance, reaching for any available metal or earth, all that greeted her was a horrible, foul garbage smell.

She also smelt the coppery odor of fresh blood, as well as a sharp, cheesy musky scent.

And rather than the sound of stomping Hork-Bajir feet, there was only the sharp sneeze of a bear and the snorting of some big animal with hooves.

"Smart Aleck? Tough Girl?" she asked cautiously, letting the stone fall away from her head. "That you guys?"

(Yeah, it's us,) Smart Aleck confirmed. (Man, no offense, but after an entrance like that, the cleaning staff is going to wear out a lot of feather dusters tidying up this room.)

"So I guess you guys took down the guards in here, huh?" Toph said as she released the broken rock from her chi and it fell to the wooden floor.

CLASH-CLACK-CLACK-CLASH!

(Sure did,) Rachel said, puffing again at the dust. (That nasty smell is from what's left of a Taxxon after Marco tossed it on his horns in bison morph, and we each brought down one of the two Hork-Bajir that stayed in here.)

(I don't know what you did to keep the human-Controllers from getting in here,) Marco added, (but I'm sure it must've been truly awesome.)

(Too bad we missed the show,) Rachel groused.

"It sure was," she told. "Anyway, thanks for taking care of business in here guys."

Deep down though, a big part of Toph was rather disappointed. She wanted more enemies to fight and defeat, more Yeerks to shock and intimidate, more Hork-Bajir to best as she stood there, breathing heavily and smiling among the remains of her stone armor.

But on the other hand, it also meant there was no more resistance, nothing to figuratively look over her shoulder for as she morphed Claire to heal her minor flesh wound, demorphed, then strode up to the metal bathtub filled with Yeerks.

_These are the enemies, the slave masters, _she said to herself. Then she thrust out her arms and pulled at the tub's nearest side, straining as she spread her hands apart and ripped it open like tinfoil with her chi.

A great gush of warm liquid, the consistency of liquid mud, suddenly gushed over her feet and lower legs, and the earthbender's face twisted in revulsion as she felt the twisting, slimy parasites, each feeling about as big as a peach, collide against her shins and ankles.

But she stayed in place and didn't move as she waited for the contents to finish draining.

Nor did she falter as over the next few minutes, she went between the would-be infestation room and the outdoors, relying on the other Animorphs to make sure every last Yeerk got covered in a thick, smothering, fatally desiccating layer of dust.

(Man, talk about stone cold,) Marco quipped.

* * *

**More excitement to come next chapter, including what Visser Three thinks of all this. As always, please practice the two Rs.**


	25. Chapter 25

**And here we see some of the more immediate ripples caused by Toph's first battle with the Animorphs in this chapter.**

* * *

Cabriss 294 ran through the forest, in the leaping, springing deerlike run of a Hork-Bajir in flight, arms held away from Krex's body so as not to slash herself.

A partly fallen tree was in her way. She hurdled it like a gymnast and ran on in terror.

At times it seemed like one of the human-Controllers was running alongside her, sometimes falling back as they failed to keep up with their host's shorter legs and poorer ability to balance.

It didn't matter. All that mattered to Cabriss was getting out of there, away from that terrible human girl, away from the crushed form of Ochet's host body, away from where Jahac 721 had had his own pistol snatched from his host's hands by her power and used to kill him.

Away, away, away.

She spied an oak tree off to her right and headed for it, climbing the trunk and taking shelter in the crown within seconds.

She sat down on a bough, raggedly panting as she watched the way she'd just come, her host's pointed tongue lolling from its beak. Realizing her host body was hungry, she shakily extended one arm and sliced a good sized strip of bark from the trunk with her wrist blade, which she quickly ate. Then she sliced off a small branch, full of leafy twigs, and ate that too, the tannins in the oak leaves pleasantly tart to the Hork-Bajir's taste buds.

The food helped to soothe Cabriss's jangling nerves, and she gave a thoughtful, shuddering sigh as she shut her eyes and tilted her head down, mind roiling with confusion.

What had happened? How could a person make the earth itself move without using tractor beams, bulldozers, or other machinery?

Ochet was dead. And as much as it tore at her, the fellow Yeerks that she'd been assigned to guard almost certainly were as well by now.

So what to do?

Their superiors would certainly not be happy to hear about this, she knew, the fear of potential punishments-Kandarona starvation, death at Visser Three's tailblade, torture-gripping her for several moments. But that was something to worry about later on.

From the reports she'd read, and the testimony of other Yeerks she'd spoken to in the pool, the Andalite bandits weren't the type to stay around to gloat or lay in wait for survivors. They attacked, fought, than left after they'd accomplished what they'd intended to do or if the battle was too much for them to handle. So it was unlikely either they or the terrible human girl they'd brought with them this time (_**How **__was she able to do those horrible things?_) would be still around by now.

At the very least, she _had_ to recover any Dracon beams that had been left behind at the scene, she knew, before any uninfested humans found them later on. And with Ochet dead, it was now up to her to try to find and round up any of her fellow Controllers that might also have survived.

After a little while, Cabriss cautiously stood erect and took a fortifying breath before lightly leaping to the ground and heading back towards the camp, leaves crunching under her dinosaur feet.

* * *

_Marco_

After Toph had torn open the bathtub and smothered every Yeerk inside with the dust she'd created, we all gathered in the woods behind the same building, demorphed, changed back into our bird morphs, and left before some Bug Fighters showed up to exact payback.

As I sprung up into the air and flapped my strong raven wings to get airborne, I quoted in thought-speak, (Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!)

(Now there's a fitting verse,) Jake laughed as we rose into the sky. (Didn't know you were into poetry Marco,)

(I think we just found the way to get Marco to pay attention in English class,) Rachel declared with mock enthusiasm. (Just make sure all the literature we go over is either funny or spooky and gothic like The Raven, and he'll be impressing people with his As in no time!)

(Yeah, but I don't exactly think Dave Barry or P. J. O'Rourke books count as acceptable literature on a school curriculum,) Tobias teasingly mulled.

Frivolous as it might've seemed, we needed the banter. Badly.

People who haven't had experience with war, with combat, tend to believe that after the good guys win a battle, there's all sorts of cheering, and saying "You're the man!" and that sort of stuff going on. That's crap.

Yeah, there's a sense of euphoria, a sense of relief and accomplishment, don't get me wrong. We'd saved dozens of unknowing people, many of them kids, from being made into Controllers tomorrow, and that was something to feel very proud and thankful about. And we'd done it together, as a team. Last but not least, we'd all gotten out alive.

But it still doesn't change the fact that you've just come out of an intense situation where it was kill or be killed, that'd you've just seen and done some majorly fucked-up things.

As we flew back towards town, the memories, stark and raw, ran through my head over and over as I'd seen them through the bison's split-in-two, blurry and washed-out vision, felt it through its-_my-_body. The lance of pain as the Taxxon guard had shot a scoop of muscle out of my huge bison shoulder. The way my horns had felt going through its thin hide, tearing open twin holes like it was just a trash bag, and how I'd smashed that one Hork-Bajir into the wall like an overripe fruit. How Rachel had dealt with the other guard, the sound its ribs had made as they'd caved in under the force of the blow from her grizzly paw...It was some heavy stuff.

It would be just one more set of terrible memories that would forever lurk inside my head. Oh, they'd fade, disappear into the background with time, yes-but they'd still always be there.

All the same though, as awful and depressing as I know it sounds, we Animorphs learned to accept these dark memories of violence long ago as par for the course, all part of that horrid deal we made in the construction site for the sake of Earth.

What had us-or at least me-shaken this time was the entirely new sort of violence we'd just seen Toph commit with her earthbending. I'd seen her rip open the makeshift pool of course, and had heard the sound of grinding, cracking stone coming from outside-along with pistol shots-even as I'd struggled with my Hork-Bajir, and known that something major was going down between her and the Controllers.

As we began to head back to Cassie's, Bird-Boy filled me and Rachel in on what he'd witnessed Toph do out front, using her bending to rip a handgun from the hands of a Controller that'd grazed her with a shot from it seconds earlier, then promptly blow him away with three shots.

Jesus Christopher. If I'd been human then, my jaw would've been down by my solar plexus in complete shock.

You've gotta understand, if you ever met Toph, walking down the sidewalk or basking in the sun, the only things that would stand out to you would be her glazed green eyes and maybe her really long hair.

And to even to us Animorphs, who knew what she really was, what she could do, it was easy to think of her the same way, as just some Asian girl who happened to have green eyes and was blind.

To be honest, she often seems so average and normal, so human, that I'd already come to find her attractive, not just in her looks-though there's definitely _nothing_ wrong with that, take it from me-but her personality too. And yes, I like her because of that. As in _like_ folks.

But then, there are those times when she does something that strips the illusion away, and you get this overpowering, humbling understanding that she's _not _a human girl, but more like a smart-mouthed goddess who's just pretending to be one.

And you don't want to get on a goddess's bad side, not if you know what's good for you.

We all knew from the start that her earthbending was hard core stuff, and that it made her very dangerous as a fighter. But until now, we hadn't been able to appreciate just _how_ dangerous she could be with it.

And exactly like with Erek when he'd gotten his hands on that Pemalite crystal, what she'd just done with her bending during her first mission had been terrifying, totally terrifying, and I don't think I was the only one rattled.

Jake must've read my mind somehow, for he said to me in private, (It'll be hard to ever think of her the same way after this, huh?)

(Got that right Big Jake,) I said. (I'm just a bit blown away, let's say.) Now there was an understatement.

We all landed in the forest behind Cassie's, at a different place than where we'd morphed.

After changing back to our normal selves, Toph morphed into a great horned owl and said goodbye before heading back into the woods to hunt. We watched her go, impressed and awed, as Bird-Boy and Ax split off too.

I walked home, greeted my Dad and Nora, sat down with them to a dinner of pineapple pork chops with brown rice while steadfastly ignoring Euclid's begging, watched some TV with Dad, then worked on my math and science homework for a while before going to bed. Business as usual.

But as I steeled myself for sleep and the nightmares I knew would come with it, my mind kept coming back to the image of Toph tearing open the metal of the tub like it was cardboard, and the three explosive shots I'd heard as she'd executed a man with his own gun.

* * *

Toph reflectively bit off one of the last portions of meat from the duck Hawk Boy had been nice enough to help roast over the fire for her and chewed, enjoying the sensation of the heat washing over her body.

Tobias had flown to her cave and rested there after the evening's excitement, while Antelope Boy had morphed an owl too and trailed her as timekeeper, staying almost at the limit of her head-talk range so as not to interfere with her hunting while she'd drifted from one perch to the next, or silently glided through the trees like a wraith.

An hour and ten minutes later, in a nearby housing development, her owl eyes had detected a group of sleeping mallards floating near the reeds which fringed a pond.

Relying on every trick about flying Hawk Boy had taught her, she'd silently plunged like a falling weight and snatched a surprised drake from the surface, owl talons piercing deep into his shoulders as the rest of the flock had scattered in quacking panic. They'd never seen her coming, and only her legs had gotten wet, she'd been that good. Then she'd carried the duck back "home" where she'd demorphed and once again, Tobias and Ax had worked together in their human morphs to graciously pluck and gut the bird, washing it clean in the stream.

After that, Antelope Boy had left to graze and later on retire in his scoop.

As for Hawk Boy, he'd left as well to spend quality time with Tough Girl, no doubt to talk about how amazing she'd been at kicking Yeerk ass.

It'd been a long evening for everyone, but between her victory in battle and another successful hunt, Toph felt on top of the world. She'd tested her bending powers against the weapons of the Yeerks, and triumphed spectacularly!

Since fleeing her parent's estate to travel with Aang, Toph had learnt many things about the facts of life in the Earth Kingdom, including some traditional practices that she'd never even known about during her twelve years.

One of these that had particularly appealed her was the idea of a victory song.

As the name implied, when you fought an enemy and killed them in battle, whether with bending or ordinary weapons, you made up a song after it was all over celebrating their defeat, how awesome you were to have laid them out.

Even though she wasn't in the Earth Kingdom right now of course, Toph was still fully eager to put the tradition into practice. And she was definitely awesome, she knew that.

While it would've been nice to have Antelope Boy or Hawk Boy there to watch and listen, doing it alone by herself was okay too.

Maybe it was even better this way, really, she guessed. No risk of embarrassment, for one thing. And a triumph song was ultimately from you, about you, and for you as a person, and nobody else. Only the night, the stone, the soil, and the earth god would have the honor of hearing her first one.

So, her hair trailing down her back, the firelight reflected in her sightless gray-green eyes, Toph parted her lips and began.

She sang it in her own tongue, the one her friends called "Chinese," a keening, lilting, high-pitched chant.

The cave and the ravine, illuminated by the dancing light of the flames, became filled with the earthbender's voice as she began to sing about the enemies she'd slain tonight.

She sang about how she'd smashed the Hork-Bajir between the stone slabs, how she'd boldly killed the human-Controller with his own weapon.

She sang about how all of the Yeerks she'd killed tonight were enemies of humans everywhere, of her new friends, including Daniel, Phet, and Mindy, that they'd made choices to come here to Earth, just as she'd done. They'd chosen their paths in life, which had led to their violent deaths. Each choice they had made had directed their fates so that Toph, the first metalbender, would be the death of them, and in battle there had been no alternative.

She, Toph Beifong, girl-child of Lao and Poppy, granddaughter of the earthbender Jai Beifong, greatest earthbender in the universe, had been fated to be their doom since they first came to be.

She also added a new part to end her triumph song, singing about her regret that she'd had to kill the human and the Hork-Bajir who'd been helpless slaves of the Yeerks, hoping that they'd understood the necessity of it and forgave her. She called on Oma and Shu to guide their spirits to the spirit world, where they would enjoy their freedom in death, and perhaps get the chance to choose new lives.

* * *

"Nag knew that too, and at the bottom of his cold heart he was afraid." Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, from _The Jungle Book_, by Rudyard Kipling.

(_Text taken from an intercepted transmission to the Yeerk homeworld from the Blade ship, authored by Esplin 9466, military rank Visser Three, and translated from the original Galard. After expressing salutations to the Council of Thirteen and telling them of this transmission's importance, he then goes into a recounting of how he was informed of recent curious events which he warns may pose a real barrier for the invasion of Earth. Relevant text begins below.)_

I was standing in the chamber of my Blade ship which serves as my personal office, examining the latest figures for hosts gained over the past earthly week on my computer display as four of my domestic felines either impassively watched me or slept.

My attention was caught by the communicator near the door producing its droning hum to let me know someone desired to speak with me, and my stalk eyes turned toward it.

(Who is it this time, fool?) I snapped in irritation at the Taxxon secretary who I knew was on the other end.

She spat out something in her hissing speech. Cabriss 294, a Hork-Bajir Controller, was coming to see me, and should be arriving quite soon.

(Very well Odlen 532,) I sighed. (I suppose it's good of you to let me know.)

It wasn't long before I heard the steps of a Hork-Bajir approaching, than stopping just outside my door with my sharp Andalite ears.

(Come in,) I said.

Several long seconds passed.

(Quit stalling and come _in_, you idiot,) I seethed. (I have little tolerance for those who would delay me.)

The door to my office, and haltingly, in walked Cabriss 294, eyes wide, her host body's tail swinging in agitation.

"Greetings Vi-viss-visser-"she began. "May Kanda-"

(Enough,) I growled. (Tell me what you've come here to tell me so I can get on with my day,) I snapped, twitching my Andalite tail in annoyance.

She swallowed. "As Visser may know, Cabriss 294 sent to help guard pool for Sharing event next morning."

The Sharing. Just hearing the name of that ridiculous, needlessly time-consuming organization, brainchild of that filthy, human-besotted traitor Edriss, made my Andalite ears lay back and the crest of hair along my spine spring erect from anger.

(So why aren't you there right now?!) I demanded as I flicked my tail blade in the air.

Then, all at once, the awful, infuriating understanding swept over me, like a temperature gradient in a pool.

I turned and fixed her with all four of my eyes, glowering as I held my host's tail high and said darkly, (The Andalite bandits attacked again, didn't they? And let me guess, they killed all of our kin that you'd been assigned to protect because you were all incompetent _fools_, _didn't they!_" I bellowed as rage gushed up within me.

"Yes Visser," Cabriss squeaked, shutting her host's eyes, knowing that the death she deserved for her failure was just moments away. "Andalites break in, kill pool Yeerks-but this time in strange _new_ way, with human girl who fight with them," she babbled fearfully.

This news gave me pause, and I half-raised my eyestalks questioningly. Could the xenophobic Andalites not only have accepted a human girl into their ranks, but probably have broken the code of Seerow's Kindness to give her the morphing ability as well? That would be highly odd behavior from them, if true.

(They've done it once before Yeerk filth,) Alloran reminded me then. (Remember the human boy, David?)

(Of course I remember the brat, Andalite,) I snarled in irritation.

Yes, it came back to me. From what I've been able to figure out, in their typically hypocritical, self-righteous fashion, the bandits had decided to save David Shingles after the frustrating battle at his home from capture and infestation. Then, whether out of sentimental mercy or just recognizing the pragmatic military value of it, they'd taken the extraordinary step of giving the human himself the power to morph.

The weak-minded human had accompanied them onto my Blade Ship and later confronted me inside the hologram I'd cleverly installed within the resort's banquet hall of course, that was a certainty. And I would bet my host's tail blade that he was involved in the crude, but maddeningly effective attempt by the bandits to sow chaos and demolish as much of the premises as they could in extremely large herbivore morphs during a nighttime attack in some way as well.

But then, there'd been no further sign of the boy after that incident.

It had been a relief, to know the bandits were down by one member, but also baffling.

Perhaps he'd gotten killed while in morph, or had decided to simply wash his hands of the meddling bandits and strike out on his own, although none of my underlings have ever reported seeing or hearing about him again.

There was another possibility.

While inside the holographic pillar, fearful for his life and desperate to be reunited with his parents, I'd witnessed him turn on his Andalite masters to obey my commands.

Maybe he turned on them in other ways as well before or after that encounter-and ultimately, David had done it one time too many for the bandits to tolerate. Perhaps their answer had been to simply have him executed. Or they cunningly arranged a situation where the human would get himself trapped forever in a morph.

Regardless, he'd vanished from their ranks, and the bandits have made no further attempt to integrate humans into their band since then. Or so I'd believed.

(A human girl was fighting with them?) I questioned Cabriss 294. (Did you actually see her in human form? And what do you mean by the Andalites killed those Yeerks in a strange new way?) I demanded as an afterthought. (Speak quickly fool!)

If the bandits had developed some sort of powerful new weapon, it was essential for me to learn all I could about it, and immediately.

"Cabriss see girl with own eyes Visser," she said shakily, twisting her bladed tail in a Hork-Bajir gesture of affirmation. "And it not Andalites that kill Yeerks in pool, but girl herself. Girl have bad powers, strange powers."

I wondered if the infantile mentality of the Hork-Bajir host hadn't rubbed off on her when she said that.

(What sort of 'powers' did you see her display then?) I growled, tapping my right forehoof and flicking my tail.

Her voice came out as a guttural babbling as she related the events to me. Ochet dead, along with some human Controller too, shot with his own handgun, the other human hosts driven into the woods like terrified deer, Cabriss the only one of the four Hork-Bajir guards to survive, the metal bathtub torn open with no sign of tools nearby, and the unhosted Yeerks smothered in massive amounts of dust and fine sand.

An utterly preposterous tale, you'd agree, and my main eyes narrowed in fury as I listened to her attempt to disguise her unforgivable carelessness with such a glaring, pathetic lie.

When she'd finished, starting to repeat herself-perhaps under the impression that if she related these falsehoods often enough I'd actually believe them-I snapped my tail blade forward, pressing the sharp edge against her scaly throat.

(My dear Cabriss 294,) I told her with mock politeness as I tensed my tail muscles for the fatal chop, (I don't know what possessed you to invent such a ridiculously obvious lie-if a fanciful one-to excuse your carelessness, then dare to WASTE MY TIME telling it, but you've just made your fin-)

"It not lie!" she desperately panted, her eyes appealingly wide from fear. "Visser look at images! Ask survivors with human host what happen! Girl real!"

As we all know, Edriss likes to portray me as a savage brute, a maniac of a Yeerk who follows his temper over his sense of reason. Like virtually everything else that comes out of her host's mouth, this is a blatant lie.

Was I enraged? Certainly, and hardly without reason.

But I graciously overrode my violent impulses and pulled my tail blade away, deciding I would at least see if there was any truth to her wild report.

(Don't you move,) I warned her as she sagged in relief. (I am now going to search out some witnesses, and you'd best hope they tell me the same thing,) I warned, turning back to my computer display even as I kept one stalk eye fixed on Cabriss, who meekly sat on the floor.

I brought up the image of a Gedd secretary through a holograph emitter, and ordered him to contact the human-Controllers who'd been with Cabriss 294 when the Andalites had attacked, then have as many who could make the time in their schedules meet me in my office on the Blade Ship.

In the interim, he was to send me any and all images taken of the scene by the Bug Fighter crews which arrived after the attack, which as we all know is part of standard protocol whenever unfortunate events like these occur.

"R-r-r-r-right away Visser-r-r-rr," he replied before breaking the live transmission.

As I continued to glare at Cabriss with my left stalk eye, a string of rapid clicks let me know the pictures from the scene were arriving.

Since I've chosen to pass them on to you along with this message, esteemed council members (For unlike Visser One I am _always_ forthright about my actions and progress on taking this planet, including setbacks), there is obviously no need to describe what they portray.

I will tell you though, that I found them to be initially strange, then ultimately unsettling as I went through them.

In my travels through the galaxy to acquire morphs, I have visited many planets and encountered many savage creatures. But never have I even heard of a species which can psychically manipulate the very planetary surface it stands on, then use it to crush an adult male Hork-Bajir like a _paflat,_ and I'm sure you understand why I felt like a cold hand was pressing down on my Andalite body then, gripping his hearts.

When three of the human-Controllers who'd been with Cabriss did arrive at last, their testimony was almost needless, only confirming and adding further details to this disturbing matter.

Before dismissing all four of them, I informed them that neither they nor any other Yeerks who'd been at the camp on this night were to speak to anyone about the strange girl, her abilities, or what she'd done. If she truly was a threat to our people on Earth, then I would be the one to publicly acknowledge this. Otherwise a panic could result.

After ordering one of my head guards to have each of them beaten and starved of Kandarona for a period of two earthly hours past the end of their latest feeding cycle-a merciful punishment when compared to the execution those quarter-wits surely deserved, you'll agree-I went to recline under my solar lamp, stroking my gray domestic feline, thinking about this highly concerning issue.

During my time as leader of this planet's invasion force, I have attempted several times to apply the very best of Yeerk science towards modifying lifeforms from this planet or from others in ways that will benefit our mission to subjugate Earth. But most regrettably, by one method or another, each of these attempts has been foiled by the foul Andalite bandits.

Now though, it would seem as if they have been inspired by those same efforts, presumably getting hold of a girl of Asian ethnicity at some point, then altering her chromosomes and certainly brain structures in some experiment so that she can utilize mental forces to propel, move, and tear open stone and metal.

While it seems to me that they've only produced one successful experimental subject in the girl so far, can you imagine the results for our invasion forces if the bandits are able to produce more? Even I feel that this is a matter of grave concern, one which needs to swiftly be dealt with.

Fortunately however, the survivors of the latest attack by the Andalite scum all agree that this girl seems to be visually impaired in some manner, a physical trait that with luck and the right type of strategic planning could be exploited to successfully destroy her.

If this blindness/impairment is related to the experimentation performed by the bandits, her loss may then dissuade them from producing more beings with her fearful ability.

There is a predatory creature, native to one of the moons in the newly discovered Omigelucah system, which I feel would serve my purposes nicely to that end. You probably know the one.

In this light, I request permission to have one of these rare carnivores captured, infested, and then brought here to earth-where I intend to have it used to hunt this alarming experiment of the Andalites down.

* * *

**As they say, the plot thickens...**

**On another note, I wish all my readers a safe, Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013. May you all get the gifts you wanted, eat way more cookies and candy then is good for you, and enjoy the presence of good friends and family.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Happy 2013 everyone! Enjoy this latest chapter of our favorite earthbender's adventure. Reviews make a great late holiday gift. ;)**

* * *

After tossing the picked-over bones of the duck down the trash shaft, Toph had a drink from the metal pail, used her latrine, and then curled up underneath the blanket to sleep for the night.

Her dreams had become weird ones ever since she'd been given the ability to body bend, wild, hybrid things that were a cross between her unaccustomed new sense of vision, and her familiar tremor sensing.

She dreamed of being a goshawk, speeding among the tree trunks like a living arrow, eyes never wavering from the rabbit she was chasing. Suddenly the rabbit stumbled to a halt and began to warp, writhe, and lose its fur as it turned into a Yeerk.

As the slug helplessly lay there on the leaves, Toph dug her talons into its slimy body, and carried it to Yzark's house. There she demorphed, and tossed the Yeerk to the Chee's dogs, which devoured it, growling as she grinned in victorious pleasure.

Later she dreamed that she was back at the camp, with Mindy and Daniel sheltering behind her, scared, stunned and bewildered as one Hork-Bajir Controller after another sprang at them, slicing the air with their blades and growling threateningly.

But Toph wasn't rattled in the least. She smashed them, crushed them with her bending, sending them flying backward with huge boulders, crushing them underneath or between great slabs of rock, impaling them with thrown spikes of stone. She was unbeatable!

Still later she dreamed of being in the forest, in dog morph. Sirius, to be precise.

There was a strange creature, a dangerous creature, hidden in some brush that she could smell, but not see. It was watching her, was something Toph knew she _had_ to fight_, had_ to kill…but she was also so deeply scared of the unseen beast that it made her dog flanks quiver in fear at the very idea of confronting it, even as she circled the great patch of brush and growled aggressively.

At that she woke up, blinking and inexplicably unsettled as she ran her hands along the cave floor, sending out waves of bending to reassure herself as she listened to the sound of light rain falling outside.

Nothing was amiss though, and she snuggled back down under the blanket again.

Still, the disconcerting feeling she'd gotten from the last dream lingered.

From somewhere to the southwest, far off, a train's whistle cut through the night, a hollow, lonesome sound.

Toph had no idea what was producing the weird noise of course, and could tell it was a long way away. Still though, it only added to her feelings of unease and isolation.

Suddenly, on a whim she threw off the blanket, stripped off her "sweatshirt," and "sweatpants," then got to her feet and stretched out her right arm, pushing out to douse the campfire with earth.

She then morphed the horned owl for the second time that night, and sprung into the moist air.

Flying along like a ghost, she passed over Cassie's house, and then headed into town, using what landmarks she remembered to make her way to Olivia's.

The house was dark when she arrived, and neither did she see any sign of the droid's car, meaning that she was probably at work.

But one of the upstairs windows was open partway, and as she glided closer, Toph saw that it was the one which opened to her unofficial "bedroom."

_Nice of her to do that_, she thought gratefully.

She landed inside, on the edge of her gravel and cedar bed, and demorphed.

The Chee's dogs of course, heard her body changing, walking around, and raced up to the other side of the closed door, barking wildly and scratching at the bottom.

"Relax guys," she told them once her mouth was human enough once more to form words. "Just me, the girl who can turn into a bird, dropping in." That calmed them down somewhat, hearing the sound of her voice.

Once she was fully human, she felt her way to the window and closed it to keep the place from getting too chilled, then used her metalbending to open the doorknob, letting the dogs in to give her affection and company before settling down in her strange bed for the remainder of the night.

Wearing only her purple leotard, she laid there under the blankets for a few minutes in the early hours of the morning, thinking, considering as Simon, the Scottish terrier, snuggled into her arms, a lump of hairy warmth.

For the first time in her life-or at the very least, two years-she'd used her bending to actually _kill_ opponents, and the formerly unknown discipline of metalbending had played a big part in that.

It was a far cry from when she'd first demonstrated her ability, as a very young child. She wondered sometimes, how far back could a person remember things from their past? When she'd asked her mom that once, Poppy had told her she really had no idea. Her earliest memory was of cuddling the family's new crested bobcat kitten as she lay in bed with her own mother, Mingzhu. She'd been a little over two and a half years old, from what she'd been told.

As for when she'd asked Twinkletoes the question, his first coherent memory was of being bitten by a hamster-gecko that had been slow enough for him to grab, which had drawn blood and held on for several terrifying seconds before letting go. Later, while paying a visit to his son after he'd been sent to live at the Air Temple, Aang's dad had told him that happened when he was just sixteen months old.

Regardless, she couldn't remember back to a time when she _hadn't_ known how to earthbend. From what her parents had told her, they'd first realized she had the ability when she was a little under a year old, just learning how to stand and walk.

One day, as Poppy had been supporting her under her shoulders, encouraging her to place one foot in front of the other, a wobbly Toph had stumbled, belly-flopping onto the stone flooring. Scared from the sudden loss of contact with her mother and the harsh impact, she'd thrown a snit, crying as she'd lain there…and two little deltas of cracks had formed in the stone as she'd slapped her pudgy hands against it. The first tiny step on her journey to what she was today.

That had soon developed into the oh-so-fun stage that most parents of a child capable of bending had to endure, where the young bender used their newfound ability to become literally become a complete terror, to the point where you had to install a complex in them about using bending carelessly or aggressively-especially if you couldn't protect yourself/discipline them with bending skills of your own. (Kids who could firebend were naturally the most nerve-wracking of all, and in the Fire Nation, no responsible mother of a firebending tot kept any less than at least two good-sized pails of water in every room of the house. Sparky had told her about how, according to Ursa, when he and Psycho Princess were babies, if she was late in breastfeeding them or they were left in their crib too long, they'd cry and kick out, wave their hands in complaint-and then their toys, pillow, a chair, or something else in the nursery would start smoldering and burning.)

There were quite a few occasions when repairs had had to be made to parts of the Beifong estate around that time of her life.

Then at six she'd encountered the hulking badgermoles, and her ability had blossomed into a league of its own.

_Fragile and helpless indeed Dad_, she wryly grunted with a slight smile, remembering.

With that proud thought, she let herself slip off into sleep.

* * *

Toph was awoken by the movement of Cinnamon standing up from his position beside her and moving toward the door.

All the other dogs began to do the same, (including Red, who'd been sprawled across her calves) breaking into a run as they left the room and went down the staircase.

As one sort of blackness gave way to another one that was filled with awareness, Toph raised herself onto the palms of her hands, listening to the deep, grinding click of the lock being turned in the front door downstairs.

Olivia, back from her job.

Deciding she'd best let the droid know she was here, she pushed herself up off the gravel and into a squat, then carelessly spat off to her left as she heard the front door open and shut.

She could hear Olivia saying in excited pleasure to the milling dogs, "You guys are so happy to see me, aren't you? You kids missed me, huh? Don't worry Red," she laughed, "you'll get to go out and play in just a bit. Yes, I'm sure you're hungry again Simon."

"Your newest 'kid' could use some food too," Toph wryly commented as she walked down the upstairs hallway, stretching her arms in a big V.

"Toph!" the Chee cried in surprised joy, as if the bender had been her friend for a lifetime. It was charming, really. "How delightful to come home and find you here. You must've flown in through the window last night."

Toph nodded as she began to make her way down the carpeted stairs, holding the metal railing. "_Thanks for having it open just in case. And the door closed so your dogs wouldn't attack me by mistake while I was in morph,_" she added.

"_You're quite welcome. You don't need to tell me, but any reason you chose to come sleep here?_"

"_None really,_" Toph shrugged as she made her way to the bottom, morphing her eyes into those of Claire's for safety's sake. "_Guess I felt kind of nervous all alone in my cave for some reason, so I flew here as an owl._"

"_Well, you must be feeling hungry at this time of the morning, so I'll start doing something about that._"

"_Sweet,_" she grinned. "_I'm down with that. And oh, I almost forgot, I got to kick some Yeerk butt nice and good last evening on my first mission with the Animorphs!_" she declared proudly. "_When those Controllers got a good look at just what I could do, they all ran off into the woods like frightened rabbits,_" she laughed, relishing the memory of the recent victory.

"_You'll have to tell me all about it while you eat then_," Yzark replied.

Seventy minutes later, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, alternating between bites of a delicious new breakfast food the Chee called "blueberry pancakes," with that unbelievably sweet syrup and sausages as the dogs ate from their newly filled dishes, the earthbender was finishing up her account of how she'd systematically smothered the Yeerks in the sand and dust she'd created for the purpose.

From Olivia's nonverbal responses and still-so-hard-for-her-to-figure-out facial expressions of her hologram, Toph got the impression that while the Chee didn't condemn or blame her for doing what she had to do during last night's battle, she didn't necessarily approve of the bender's actions either, was disturbed by them.

Certainly, she knew from Olivia's recounting of her past in China that the metal dog-people had no love for violent acts, and most shied away from scenes of battle and carnage.

And then…

BBBRRRRIIIINNNGGG! BBBRRRIIIINNNGGGG!

That harsh, jangling sound again, assaulting her sensitive ears, making her nearly jump out of her skin as the earthbender cried out, leaping erect in a fighting stance as her head darted back and forth, scanning for a threat.

"_It's all right Toph!_" Olivia assured her as she also got to her feet. "_It's just that telephone device ringing again, to let us know someone's calling. You remember the telephone from last time, don't you?_"

Ah yes, it began to come back to her. That dumb, crazy, mind-blowing telephone thing, which somehow magically allowed you to speak to a person without actually speaking to them when they were there. She'd never be able to wrap her mind around it.

"_Oh yeah, I think I kind of do. Daniel 'talked' to me on it,_" she replied. "_But good Shu, that sound is like being punched in each side of my head at once,_" she grumbled as Olivia walked across the kitchen floor and took the phone from its mount on the wall.

As her heart rate began to subside, she heard Olivia say, "Hello, this is Olivia Ting here." A pause.

"Oh, hi Mindy. Nice to hear from you."

Excitement soared inside the earthbender as her ears pricked and she went alert. Mindy probably wanted to speak yet not _truly_ speak (As Toph thought of it at any rate) to her, a baffling yet certainly not unwelcome prospect.

"Yes, she's right here," the Chee said as she turned toward Toph, holding out the phone.

Although she needed no cuing, Toph was hesitant and suspicious all the same as she strode forward and took the machine from the Chee. Had her life ever gotten weird!

"Hey Mindy," she greeted. "How's it going?"

"Going good," her friend's disembodied voice replied (and at that Toph struggled not to recoil or cry out). "Well, mostly," she sighed dejectedly.

"What's wrong?" Toph asked in concern, mind secretly reeling.

"Well, Dan and I were all excited last night to go to Sharktooth Hill Camp today, have fun at that fall celebration or whatever. We even had our clothes laid out and everything!"

_Yeah, the celebration put on by a bunch of nasty slimy brain-stealing slugs_, she thought dryly.

"But now," Mindy went on unhappily, "while I was brushing my teeth just a little while ago, Mom told me and Daniel that she'd just heard news that some horrible jerks had snuck into the camp and trashed the haunted house and the tub for bobbing for apples for no reason!"

"Really? That's horrible!" Toph gasped in feigned shock and outrage. "I can't believe someone would do something like that!" she snapped, even as a part of her internally rejoiced over a job well done. "How could those...eerrrrrr."

"I know," Mindy agreed mournfully. "Now the event's been canceled because of all the damage those sick people did. Mom's kinda surprised they were able to do that without getting caught or shot by the park police," she added as an afterthought.

_Which is a shame, but more of a stroke of luck for you and your brother than you'll ever be able to know, Madam Withdrawn. As for how those police were dealt with, now __that__ would really throw you guys for a loop_, she silently chuckled, imagining Mindy's slack-jawed reaction.

"That's too bad," Toph replied in mock commiseration as a part of her gave a silent, triumphant sigh of relief. "What are you and your brother gonna do now today?"

"Yeah, and like I said, we were so looking forward to it too! Anyway," Mindy meditatively proposed, "to answer your second question, we and Phet are thinking that since the camp event is out of the picture now, the Gardens might be a fun place to go instead. I've heard they have an awesome zoo-which Phet is really excited about seeing-and this great amusement park too," she said eagerly.

"I'm guessing you're calling to see if I want to come along too."

"You bet. If Olivia can bring you," she added.

It was no problem for the Chee in the least, of course. After making sure all four dogs had gotten the chance to pee and poop, reluctantly being coaxed into slipping on a pair of thin-soled sandals, and Toph had submitted to having the pair of "colored lenses" delicately placed over her eyeballs, it was into that horrid, blasted "car" once more to endure the stomach-churning, twenty-minute drive to the Gardens.

Once there, the earthbender's senses, including her borrowed vision, were assaulted by all sorts of unfamiliar new smells, sounds, and vibrations as she stepped into the parking lot. The air seemed so thick with grime it made her nose water, and she often stopped to spit or suck the mucus down her throat.

But she felt a lot more at ease already when she felt the heartbeats of the Thongchai twins, then saw them near the gate to the park.

"Hey Zhenzhu, great to see you again," Daniel said.

With Yzark and Nimnuan accompanying them, all four young people had a fun time together at the Gardens, talking and laughing together.

They'd gone right to the amusement park first, where their respective caretakers had bought the necessary tickets to go on the complex, fast-moving metal creations simply called "rides."

Toph Beifong was brave. She was bold. She faced things head-on, even if she secretly had her doubts. She was ready for anything, and just twelve hours ago had happily taken on at least eight armed Controllers, killing two of them without a second thought.

Yet there was no way, despite the cajoling and reassurances of her new friends, that she would ever join them on the insanely fast, filled-with-screaming-people, twisting and plummeting roller coaster. And that horrid thing called a Tilt-o-Whirl? She knew with certainty it would make her vomit out her stomach in five seconds flat.

She was willing to go on the more sedate rides though, such as the Lazy River ride, the amazing Ferris wheel that allowed you to see over the entire park from the top, the merry-go-round with its whimsical animal figures, the hang gliding ride, the Log Chute, the Swing Fling Tree, the Gravitron which pinned you in place with centrifugal force.

And oh, did she ever love getting behind the wheel of a "bumper car," and chasing, trying to ram the ones her new friends were in! Strangers in their own cars were fair game as well.

For lunch, she had a footlong hot dog from one of the concession stands, flavored by that wonderful sauce called ketchup, with a Pepsi for her drink. For dessert, she once again followed her nose's advice and chose a tray of half a dozen miniature chocolate chip cookies.

The first bite blew her taste buds away. It was pockmarked with a warm, gooey sweetness like nothing she'd ever experienced before, rich and earthy. Not as good as the "Cinnabon" she'd had at the mall, but definitely a pretty close second, she decided.

It was a food she wanted to both savor and bolt down at the same moment, flooding her brain with intense pleasure.

Due to some rule that involved protecting the zoo's animals, Toph's Pepsi had no lid, allowing her to drink the addictively sweet fluid normally as she carried it around after lunch, walking with her sliding, shuffling gait to keep in contact with the ground.

She finished the rest as she and her companions watched a live presentation on a stage in the amusement park that Mindy said was called Gold Rush Days at The Gardens, featuring some guy playing the character of a "forty-niner" named Black Bart, and an animal he called his trusty "mule," Stella, heading out west to California from the state of "Ohio" to look for gold in 1849.

He displayed metal implements they used like pans used to separate gold from gravel, pickaxes and dynamite to dig out mines, that sort of thing, while talking about the hazards and problems he and other "49ers" faced on their journey out west and after they got to their destination. Bears, claim jumpers, diseases like cholera, Indians, starvation, rattlesnakes.

Toph decided she found it mildly interesting and entertaining. At the very least, she figured that if she was going to be stuck in this "California" until whenever the Ellimist decided he was good and ready to send her back home, she might as well learn a few things about the place and its history.

She couldn't help but think, with a combination of smugness and pity, how unfortunate it was for the poor miners that none of them had the ability to earthbend. Not only would it have made the mining so much easier, but they'd have been able to tell if gold-bearing rocks were beneath their feet and exactly where to start the excavating too.

After the show was over, Mindy and Phet led them to the zoo part of the Gardens.

While Toph had never had any particular interest in or affection for animals, she humored her new friends and went along all the same. Besides, the bender soon decided it was at least interesting to use both her temporary eyes and her seismic "seeing" to examine this new world's variety of creatures, compare and contrast them to the ones she'd grown up among. And again, taking the time to find out more about this "Earth," get a better understanding of _all_ its aspects, could only help her in the long run, she knew.

There was another agenda she had as well, one known only to her and if suspected, only to the masquerading droid.

Intelligent, opportunistic predators make a habit of making note of places and animals that are likely to provide them with a meal in the near future, even if well-fed or otherwise occupied.

Komodo dragons will keep tabs on the location of pregnant buffalo and goats, hoping to be in attendance around the time when the weak, defenseless baby is born. Coyotes and ravens both know well that if you trail a pack of wolves for long enough, watch them from afar, in time and with luck there will be a kill to scavenge from. And the fox which spies ducks on a farmer's pond will be back within the week for dinner.

While Toph wasn't exactly interested in eating any of the zoo animals, she did take careful, anticipatory note of which ones were big, strong, really fast, those that were venomous, and could just plain hold their own in a fight, paid attention to what the Thongchai kids read from the display signs. Perhaps she'd come sometime later with Sunshine to sneak in and acquire them.

Gorillas, Smart Aleck's main battle morph, along with orangutans and chimpanzees in the primate section. Agile-looking spider monkeys and hulking baboons that displayed knives of teeth when they yawned.

Siberian tigers like Boss Boy's primary fighting morph, Sumatran tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, caracals, and African lions. Spotted hyenas and African painted dogs.

White, black, and Indian rhinos, African elephants, water buffalo, gaur, hippos, and Cape buffalo.

In the Northern Forests section there was a pair of creatures called "wolverines," each of which could bring down a large deer all on their own. There were also moose, a polar bear, and a pair of lynx.

A golden eagle, a crowned eagle, a martial eagle and a bald eagle.

There were Nile and Indopacific crocodiles, an immense anaconda and reticulated python, Komodo dragons. One area of the zoo, called Death Row Reptiles, featured a huge display of deadly venomous snakes of every color and description, ranging from huge king cobras to swift tree-dwelling boomslangs to squat Gaboon vipers to daffodil-yellow eyelash vipers.

There were even dangerous bugs like the Colombian lesser black tarantula and giant Amazonian centipedes that Mindy and her mother refused to even look at.

"You two are such wimps," Daniel had laughed.

"Well they're gross!" Mindy shot back as she winced.

If she could talk one of the other Animorphs into coming along for backup some night, and manage to slip past the security guards, she'd be spoiled for choice when it came to new battle morphs to acquire.

Obviously though, she couldn't just jump into their enclosures right now in broad daylight, not with hundreds of people-including a few that had to have Yeerks in their heads-around and watching.

Still, she managed to take a few extra morphs away from the experience.

One of the first exhibits near the zoo's entrance was the marine mammal section, a sprawling complex of huge concrete pools.

Phet noticed the sign first.

"Hey Mom, look," he said enthusiastically, pointing. "We can feed and pet the dolphins here, and then feed the seals and sea lions too! Can we come back to this place for one of the feeding times and get some fish, please?"

"Sure, we can do that later," Nimnuan agreed.

"Thanks Mom."

So, at a time of day Yzark and their friends called 3:30, Toph found herself walking up to an enormous basin lined with the fake mockery of stone called concrete. She could hear the sloshing of water while she was still far off, and the sharp, explosive _whuffs_ as the dolphins broke the surface to forcefully exhale, than take another breath before submerging again.

"Wow, cool," Daniel said as they joined a growing crowd of people, impressed. "I've never been this close to a dolphin before."

"We've seen some while out on boat rides back home," Mindy reminded him.

"Yeah, but not close enough to touch and feed!"

"Yep, this'll be fun."

Most of the pool, Toph could sense, blue and clean as the sky, was deep. But there was a shallower portion, whose wall curved outward, that was about twenty paces wide, and from what she could tell with her seismic sense, was about a single pace deep.

It was here that the half-dozen dolphins and people were congregating.

Gulls were too, shrieking in excitement, and even a few hopeful egrets, standing and elegantly picking their way over the rocks on the edge of the pool.

The earthbender still had only the vaguest concrete ideas of what made something visually "beautiful." Having a wide range of colors seemed to have something to do with it, she guessed, as well as shape.

But all the same, she decided then that the egrets qualified as beautiful. They were pure white, one of the very first colors she'd ever seen, with graceful black legs and head plumes, standing tall as they walked with the poise of noble lords, eyes alert and questing.

Several paces away from the feeding zone was a simple wooden building, from which the fish to feed the dolphins was sold. It was still closed, and blocked off by a rope barrier.

It wasn't long though before Toph felt/saw a man, short and thin in his build with a shaven head, come up to the crowd with an air of authority.

"Okay guys," he announced, "in a moment you'll be able to purchase fish to feed the dolphins. Each paper tray costs two dollars for four fish. It's perfectly fine to pet the dolphins while you feed them-in fact, they love being petted, like dogs-but make sure not to touch them around their eyes, blowhole, or the inside of their mouths, since those places are especially sensitive. And be careful if you have long nails."

Toph could definitely relate to that last part. The only time she'd ever allow someone to lay hands on her touchy feet was either if it was absolutely necessary or if they were someone that she really trusted. And at the moment, she didn't think she'd even let Sunshine do that yet.

"Since we've got plenty of eager seagulls here," the man went on, "make sure to cup the edges of your fish tray together in a U shape. If you want to feed one of the birds anyway, just lightly toss a fish in their direction or hold it up by the tail. And finally, keep your fish trays in a position where none of the dolphins can grab them. If you have any questions about our animals or just dolphins in general, I'll be happy to answer them. Now enjoy your poolside encounter with our dolphin "Friends" at the Gardens!" he finished as he backed away before removing the rope barrier, and Toph heard a low rattling sound as the wooden shutter was lifted up from inside, and they all joined Nimnuan in line to buy some fish.

The fish were a bit longer than her middle finger, and came in a waxed paper tray similar to the one her chocolate chip cookies had come in at lunch.

It was an amazing experience, being so close to such huge, sleek animals. For one thing, they were the first fully aquatic creatures she'd ever truly seen in her life, confident and graceful as they slipped through the water to accept the fish tossed into their mouths.

They were as much a part of it, at home in it, as the badgermoles were in their stone labyrinths.

And they were so big, so powerful!

One of the dolphins stopped in front of them, and raised its head out of the water, making a sort of high pitched, staccato squeaking as it eagerly opened its mouth, baring slightly hooked yellow-white teeth.

Phet giggled as Daniel tossed a fish into its mouth, which the dolphin swallowed as he rubbed its bulging forehead, his own teeth showing in a grin of delight and wonder.

It opened its mouth again, and now the earthbender herself tossed one to the dolphin. As it swallowed, she reached forth with her left hand and stroked its gray hide, bracing for the slimy, nasty, cold sensation she was familiar with from touching fish. But its skin felt nothing like she'd expected, sleek and smooth, yet unexpectedly dense with a mild sort of springy quality to it.

"Feels almost like sheet rubber, huh?" Daniel commented.

She just nodded, pretending to understand, as Mindy gave a second dolphin approaching them a fish.

"Yeah, like a car tire," his mother agreed as she petted one too, its eyes twinkling. "But a lot smoother."

As Toph stroked the dolphin, she reminded herself to focus on the animal as she acquired its genes. And the dolphin's eyes became hooded in what seemed like bliss while she did.

After they'd given all their fish to the dolphins (as well as a few to the elegant, deceptively lightening fast egrets) and spent some time petting the brainy mammals, Daniel had suggested they should head over to the seals and sea lions next, since their time slot for visitor feedings was just a few minutes away.

There were actually two different pools that the sea lions and seals lived in.

One was a large blue pool, maybe four times bigger than a swimming pool and shaped like a huge semi-circle, with the flat, cut-off edge acting as the viewing deck. There was a concrete island in the pool, shaped roughly like a big loaf of bread, with places for the seals and sea lions to rest. From it extended a sort of broad peninsula that almost reached to the viewing area, but not fully, and had enough of a gap for the animals to zip through.

It was home to several energetic California sea lions, the one hundred and eighty to three hundred and fifty pound animals proving to be amazingly sleek, flexible and agile as they dragged around their toys, barked in excitement, raised their lithe torpedo bodies above the surface to get a better look at the people, did underwater acrobatics with a finesse that surpassed even the dolphins, slapped the surface with a flipper, or just did laps, rising now and again to take a snorting breath.

On the right side of the pool, more or less keeping to themselves, were the shier, smaller, less boisterous and far more portly harbor seals, bobbing and watching them with soulful dark eyes that seemed to almost take up their entire cueball heads.

Nearby, on the left as you approached, was an oval-shaped pool about a third larger than the first one, with even deeper water and an island with roughly the same egg-like shape.

The scents and sounds which came from both of them hit Toph like a slap, a light gale, as she got close to the nearest one.

"Arrr, arrrr, arrrr, arrrr!" the sea lions barked, their voices scraping the air.

But what _really_ got to the earthbender were the powerful smells, of the old fish carried on the breaths of the sea lions, and the dung on their resting island, which also reeked of long-expired fish.

Nevertheless, she joined her friends by the side of the pool. And even if they were a bit loud and stinky, that was hardly a strike against them as potential new morphs.

This time, it was an older woman who announced that the "fish shop" for the seals was about to open and removed the rope barrier. Interestingly, people who wanted to feed them could choose to buy trays with two different kinds of fish here, either the smaller "anchovies" which cost two dollars for a tray of four, or the larger "capelin" which cost four dollars for a tray of two, and were particularly suited to the three Steller sea lions in the pool next door.

Wrinkling her nose, Toph pretended to accompany Olivia and Nimnuan to the fish stand while the Thongchai kids stayed by the pool, idly standing by the concealed droid as she handed over the money for a tray of each type of fish.

But as they headed back, she took the moment to gesture at Olivia with her right hand, palm down as she flicked her fingers toward her.

Olivia got the message, and went with her a couple paces away from the line, asking, "What is it Toph?"

"I'm planning to acquire both kinds of sea lions in a bit," she whispered back, "so use your cloaking ability to conceal my hand when I do it, okay?"

"Sure," the Chee said as they walked back to the pool, fish trays in hand. "Just don't get bitten."

The sea lions and seals had all gathered at the side of the pool, plucking fish out of the air as they were thrown to them or racing to grab ones tossed into the water.

A young male, his forehead starting to bulge out, glided up to Toph and her pals, rising up out of the water and opening his whiskered mouth, showing his teeth, stained brown-black and shaped like a dog's.

"AARRRRR!" he went, the fishy stench of his breath washing over the bender like a putrid gale.

"Eewww!" she went as she recoiled. "Talk about bad breath," she muttered, even as she tossed the sea lion an anchovy.

"Yeah, you could stand to use some mouthwash," Daniel told it in indirect agreement.

"I wonder if they'll let you pet them too," Mindy pondered doubtfully as she threw a fish further into the pool, where another sea lion grabbed it with a swoop and a splash.

"Maybe, but with teeth like that I'm sure not risking it," Daniel said.

Toph though, decided she would do it, and picking out another anchovy, tossed it into the sea lion's foul-smelling mouth. The instant he closed it, she strained forward and placed her right hand on his Doberman muzzle, focusing.

He didn't start to sink or anything as the trance took effect, just vapidly blinked up at her a few times with his soft yet astute eyes, stiff whiskers tickling her palm.

As soon as the deed was done and Toph pulled back, his first action after snapping to was to blink once, lightly shake his head, then give another reeking "AAARRRR!" for some more fish.

After dividing the anchovies between the sea lions and the seals, they headed over to the other pool, which housed a quartet of Steller sea lions.

The moment he laid eyes on them, Toph heard Daniel's breath catch in his chest.

"Whoa," he said, impressed. "These guys are freaking huge!"

And oh, were they ever.

Steller sea lions are almost terrifyingly immense animals, brawny dark blond torpedoes of flesh that can rip apart and devour a three-foot cod like it was nothing more than a chicken thigh, with some males growing close to a ton and a half in weight.

The young bull and three females in this deeper pool weren't nearly that big, but were still majorly husky. Each of the females alone was eight and a half feet long, weighing close to six hundred pounds.

And when one of them approached, the blast of foul breath from her mouth when she demanded a fish, lined with snaggled, fearsome-looking tusks that could shame a Rottweiler's choppers, was like a hurricane that nearly knocked Toph over as it hit her acute nostrils.

The woman who worked at the park said that although the Stellers were friendly, it was safest to just immediately toss them the fish when they came forward, not holding one in your hand for any longer than was necessary. With these animals, twice the size of a lioness, Toph could easily see why.

Still, if she wanted to acquire one (and she certainly did) she'd have to encourage contact.

The first of the capelin she chucked at one huge female's mouth, which grabbed the fish and bolted it down with a gnashing of teeth.

"Wow, can you believe those teeth?!" Mindy commented.

Toph ignored her as, trusting the Chee to conceal what her arm was doing, she held out the second capelin and instead of dropping it, steeled herself for what the sea lion would do next.

The sea lion _surged_ up from the water, jaws agape, with amazing speed, and the earthbender dropped the fish at the very last second, curving her hand around its huge bristly nose and focusing (while also focusing on not falling in and praying not to be bitten) on its nature, feeling the upper incisors knock against her wrist and hoping the contact would last long enough before gravity brought the immense animal sliding back down into the water.

Too soon, the sea lion did just that. But happily for her, Toph then saw with relief that her eyelids were partly closed, and the sea lion kind of made a clumsy halfway splash onto her side instead of sinking down and backwards before coming to. She'd done it, and without losing any fingers in the process too, which was definitely a plus.

They made a stop by the Garden's new killer whale tank, a regular artificial _lake_ of saltwater commandeered by a pair of massive black and white animals, big as badgermoles, that Olivia said were orcas, a huge male called Swoosh, and his somewhat smaller mate, Serena. They were truly awe-inspiring beasts, their bodies seeming to roll on forever whenever they surfaced to breathe, then casually dove back under. Like forces of nature.

After seeing enough of the giant dolphins, it was time to grab a snack, than head back home. As all four of them chattered about and relived the day's experiences while they made their way out into the parking lot, then fondly said their goodbyes, it was obvious that they were quite a merry crew of teenagers. And for the time being at least, Toph thought in secret, inner satisfaction, a free one, thanks to her.

* * *

The next several days were fairly uneventful.

Toph fell into a pattern of dividing her time between her cave and Yzark's, tending to have breakfast and lunch at the Chee's, then go hunting in a morph of her choosing somewhere in the forest for her dinner, away from Hawk Boy's territory.

She ran down rabbits as a black fox or bobcat, and stalked quail, doves, or other gamebirds in the brush. She knocked ducks, pheasants, and other birds out of the air in a puff of feathers as a goshawk or red-tail, stayed on the tails of frantic gray squirrels and snatched them from the tangled treetops or from the ground like living lightening.

In weasel morph, she went down the burrows of pocket gophers, ground squirrels, and rats, grappling with the large rodents and killing them with a sharp, quick bite to the back of the head as they writhed together in a whirling, desperate dance before dragging them out and demorphing.

In the body of a mink, she dove for trout and other fish, snagged bullfrogs, ambushed ducks, and once after a slashing, fierce, rolling, twenty-minute struggle, killed one of the biggest muskrats Tobias had ever seen.

All of them were cleaned, cooked up, and then eaten, their bones joining the others in the trash shaft.

One way or another, between the efforts of Olivia, Cassie, or Erek, and visits Hawk Boy made to thrift stores in human morph, Toph gradually got her hands on a roll of aluminum foil, a cast-iron skillet, a couple of pots, a great big bag of long-grain rice, a _huge_ box of ramen noodles, some ceramic plates and bowls, a few mugs, a campfire grilling rack, several pairs of wooden chopsticks, some containers of salt, pepper, ground cloves, ground ginger, and other spices, bottles of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and other classically Oriental condiments, and a partial set of silverware to help make her meals at the cave both more convenient and varied. They really were so sweet to her.

Very soon, she became confident enough with her new world that the company of Tobias or Ax was no longer needed at night in the forest. Still, she was always happy to have them drop by and spend some time with her.

There were blissful, exhilarating flights taken with them in her raven or bird of prey morphs over the forest, city, or beach (and once she scared the two of them almost to death by boldly teasing a coyote they saw in a meadow in raven morph), spying on possible Yeerk activity together, and nighttime rides on Antelope Boy's back as he fed in the fields.

The other Animorphs stopped by now and again as well to say hello and chat with the earthbender, see how she was doing, if she needed anything, or just to hang out. Rachel showed up on Sunday afternoon with some of her textbooks she had to read from for school, and they spent an excellent few hours sharing tales of battle together, of making Controllers and firebenders flee before them. It was a great time.

Cassie came after school on Tuesday with two notebooks. One was to write down some of Toph's firsthand accounts of her time on Earth, while the other was simply to make sketches of the earthbender in. She'd asked Toph to perform some restrained earthbending for her, adopt various forms or katas, than hold them for a bit so she could sketch the postures and motions, which Toph gladly did, her ponytail lashing to add a dramatic effect.

During those several days, there was no news or sign of any impending operations being staged by the Yeerks, whether small or major.

Toph figured that after seeing what her bending could do and getting such a butt-kicking at her hands, the slugs were in a serious state of shock over the whole thing, and had drawn in their horns while they ran around in a panic and tried to figure out what in Tu Gong's name they were going to do now. It was an idea she found immensely pleasing.

But early the following Thursday morning, that all changed when Toph was awoken from her sleep by the initially unnerving vibrations of a pair of metal feet coming quickly down the ravine.

Was it Olivia coming? But wasn't she supposed to be still at the casino this early in the morning?

Groggily, she raised her head and held out her hands as she sent out a light wave of bending.

No, it was a different Chee. Probably Rasqtol, from what she could tell.

Her presumption was proven correct when the droid came to a stop in the cave's entrance and spoke.

"You're still all right," he "exhaled" in relief. "Come on, you've got to snuff out that campfire and leave with me right away," he told her, his tone harried and fearful…but not for himself.

"Huh? What's going on?" she enquired, her voice thick and sludgy from sleep. Bewildered and still not fully alert, she sat up, rubbing her eyes and only dressed in a white tank top and pair of striped girl's boxers. "Why do I have to leave?" she said, irritated at having been woken.

"Because you're in danger," Mr. King said hurriedly. "I'll tell you after we get out into the fields, where you'll be safe from it."

"Danger? Is it Yeerks?" she guessed. "Thanks for your concern and everything robot dude, but it's nothing I can't handle," she told him confidently as she stood up and lightly _pushed_ down and out through the sole of her left foot, feeling for the presence of any Controllers.

"Maybe so, but this one is different," Mr. King replied as he shuffled in nervousness. "You won't be able to detect this Controller coming with your earthbending-but it'll be able to detect you. Trust me, you've got to smother your fire and come with me to a safer place, right away!"

Something in the frantic tone of his voice, the way the droid kept raising his head to attentively scan the surroundings got to the earthbender then, convinced her that even with her abilities, there was something out there that posed a genuine threat to her safety, and maybe very near too.

And if this Controller was something that could sense her, follow her, without her being able to sense it, then that was definitely a problem. Maybe it stuck to the trees?

"Well, if you think I should make tracks out of here, I'll trust your judgment," Toph relented as she quickly pulled on a pair of denim shorts, then flung out both her hands to bend some soil onto the fire, putting it out with a sputtering hiss.

"Good decision," Dean said as she trotted up to him. "This new creature of the Yeerks might be many miles away from here-but we still can't take any chances."

That piqued her curiosity.

"A new creature? What's it like Mr. King?"

"I'll tell you more in a little bit," he replied. "Right now, I'd really recommend hopping aboard and getting out of these woods. Then I'll bring you to Olivia's."

After sealing up the entrance to the cave with her bending, trying to do it as quietly as possible, she did just that, climbing onto the Chee's holographic back and hanging on as he broke into a run, her thick black hair streaming like a comet behind her as Mr. King ran and hurdled logs like an antelope, always with consideration for his passenger.

It was only after he'd jumped a barbed wire fence, raced through a field, and was nearly to the highway that he slowed down, and then stopped.

"You should be much safer here," he told her as he squatted down and Toph released her grip, leaping back to the ground and feeling the area with her bending. "This creature doesn't tolerate high concentrations of airborne particulate matter very well, and even if it could, it would still be too exposed."

"Can't say I do either," Toph commented, wiping her nose with her forearm. "I've had to deal with so many boogers and runny noses because of the dirty air around here you wouldn't believe it, dog-guy. But dish with me, what's going on with this new creature of the Yeerks?"

As they began to walk toward town, he told her, "To make a long story short, recently the Yeerks discovered a distant planet which is circled by a heavily forested moon. They've started to capture and infest the dominant species of predator on this moon, which is somewhat like a four-armed chimpanzee with leathery skin, and have been considering using them on Earth as well. While they're sensitive to air pollution and would stand out in the open, they're still fast and strong, and should blend in perfectly among Earth's forests or jungles. So the Yeerks think they might serve well as Controllers to capture and infest people who are out fishing, hiking, camping or doing other sorts of activities in the woods, guard the more remote pool entrances, facilities, meetings of infested Sharing members that take place in forested areas, that sort of thing-and hunt down the Andalite bandits in their forest home too," he added tellingly.

"Like me," she droned grimly. "And Hawk Boy and Ax. That's definitely bad news for us."

"Exactly, and this is why I came to get you as a precaution of course."

She nodded. "Well, how many are out in the woods right now?" she asked, taking a deep breath.

"So far, just one," Dean told her as they continued to walk. "Visser Three wants to test it out, see what it can do first before bringing more to Earth. One of our fellow Chee actually saw it in its transport cage on the Pool Ship, then transmitted the information to all of us over CheeNet after speaking with a Yeerk scientist about it."

"Huh. You said that this new Controller is good at blending in whenever it's among trees, and that I wouldn't be able to detect it with my earthbending. I'd guess that means it either climbs or swings from branch to branch then."

"Yeah, like a monkey."

"Great," she said dryly. "Well, if I was in morph and this ape thing was around, how well would it blend in exactly? What I'm getting at is, how hard would it be for me or one of the other Animorphs to see or smell this ape creature in a morph before it got a hold of us?"

"Let's just say your odds wouldn't be good," the Chee replied. "We Chee have an ability to detect smells that is far superior to a human's, but even our informant didn't notice any particularly strong or strange scent coming from the creature-or at least from the air holes in its box-so I wouldn't necessarily count on smelling it in time if it was stalking you. As for how well you'd be able to track it by scent, I can't really say," he shrugged.

"But this creature's biggest advantage," he went on, "is that it both lives in trees and looks remarkably like them, with rough, leathery gray-brown hide like tree bark that even has green and black patches on it to mimic leaves or their shadows. The retractable claws on their hands look like curved thorns, and they've also got a pair of dark green ears like a bat, which resemble large leaves."

"Must have pretty amazing hearing then," Toph commented.

She felt Dean nod. "They don't miss much."

"Would my goshawk morph or another bird of prey be able to see through its disguise at all?"

"Assuming it was staying still, probably no," he said. "Even this creature's lips and eyelids are well camouflaged-but even with its eyes shut, it can still see you through a thin, clear slit that runs across each eyelid."

"Whoa. That's just crazy."

"Yeah. And as I said, these ape-like creatures can swing very quickly through the trees, are very agile, and amazingly strong. You wouldn't have much of a chance to react before it was on you."

"Okay, that definitely sounds like a problem then. Since he's well, a hawk, Hawk Boy should be safe from that ape thing, but I sure hope someone's told Antelope Boy about it," she said nervously, blindly looking back in the direction of the forest.

"Don't worry, he already has been by now," Mr. King reassured her. "One of our people, who currently goes under the identity of a college student named Carlos, has already been to Aximilli's scoop and informed him of the possible danger. He'll probably morph bird and then seek shelter in an isolated woodlot or copse that this creature couldn't get to without exposing itself," he surmised.

Relieved, Toph nodded in agreement. Antelope Boy was very clever and a great fighter. Now that he had advance warning, he'd be able to handle things just fine. "Well thank Oma then," she breathed.

"Now I guess the question is, how to nip this in the bud," she said thoughtfully. "Obviously we've got to find this ape-creature Controller and destroy it, but who's to say that Visser Butthole won't just send a bunch more of them to do the job right a second time?" That was a worrisome idea indeed, having maybe six or more of those things rampaging through the woods.

Mr. King laughed at the slur, then said, "May I make a suggestion?"

"Go right ahead."

"As of now, the Yeerks are still in the trial phase when it comes to these creatures, testing to see how well-suited this first one will be to Earth. But if it proves not to be the case, then Visser Three's 'bosses' probably won't allow him to waste further resources and time shipping yet more of these creatures to serve as hosts on Earth."

"Well, the fact that they don't do polluted air all that well or can't really leave the woods without being spotted is definitely a strike against them as soldiers already, but if we're going to kill it-and we have to-how can we do it in a way that'll make the slugs decide to give up on using these things?" she mused.

"The best way would be to make it seem as if it was done by a wild animal, one you'd naturally find around here-or even a stray dog," the Chee replied. "These creatures are tough and not to be trifled with, but they're not invincible either, and if you and your companions can give the Yeerks cause to believe that they're vulnerable to local predators-say, a pack of wolves-, the chances are good that they'll write this plan off."

"Yeah, but the Yeerks aren't stupid either," Toph skeptically pointed out. "A lot of them will assume that it was the Andalite 'bandits' who _really_ did it in-and they'd pretty much be right."

"But they couldn't know for absolutely _certain_," Mr. King said. "And even if they strongly suspected it was some Andalites in morph who killed this creature, that wouldn't change the fact that these new Controllers would then still be vulnerable to any real wolf, mountain lion, or whatever it encountered in the forest."

"I guess you're right." Toph agreed as they walked eastward on the side of the road. "At any rate, Jake and the others will find out about this ape-thing too before the school day's out I'm sure, and then we'll figure something out together at Sunshine's."

_Until then, there's nothing else to do but wait at Olivia's with the dogs and look forward to some action in my future,_ she thought, smirking lightly.

* * *

**Although it hasn't made an appearance as yet, the predatory ape creature is mostly modeled after a female orangutan, with its leathery skin inspired by the Indian rhino. Its camo is roughly patterned after a bird called the common potoo, which actually can see through its eyelids!**

**I have seen Steller sea lions in Alaska before, and they truly are massive animals. You can get a good look at one's skull at this site: . . I certainly wouldn't want to take a bite from that thing!  
**

**I'd also like to ask, what do you guys think of my OCs here, like Olivia and the Thongchai twins? Are they likable? Believable as people?**

**Next chapter will see Toph getting up close and physical with Visser Three's latest pet project. But will it be too much for her to handle?**


	27. Chapter 27

**Well, as promised, here's another "action" chapter, where Toph has her first battle in a morph. **

* * *

**Jake.**

"Well, I'm sure everyone's been told by now about this latest Yeerk project," I said as I got serious and also got myself comfortable in a dark red plastic lawn chair.

We were in our typical meeting place, the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. Between Erek, our favorite source-on-the-street android, and some direct house calls by a couple other Chee, we'd all been informed-or in the case of our more unusual members, warned-about this new, experimental Controller's presence in the forest.

That wasn't good, so naturally I'd asked everyone to show up after school for yet another of our little war councils, where we'd work out a plan of action.

I _had_ to be there of course, even though I had a paper for Genetics class that I badly needed to start developing an outline for. (We'd all had to choose a genetic disorder to research, than write a report about. Mine was Marfan Syndrome, which did in Jonathan Larson, the guy who wrote the script and music for _Rent_. Just in case you care.)

Cassie was naturally present as well, firmly holding a wounded snow goose to her chest as it made unhappy, nasal barks and she force-fed it an antibiotic pill. It had been crippled by a duck hunter's shotgun blast.

Toph, our newest member, was there too, blankly staring in my general direction with her frosted mint eyes as she popped Mello Crème pumpkins from a bag into her mouth and chewed, casually listening. Her vacant gaze sent something of a chill down my spine.

I'd be lying if I told you that even if I'm supposed to be the "fearless" leader of the group, I hadn't developed quite a healthy, guarded respect for what she could do with those telekinetic "earthbending" powers of hers after seeing her take the gloves off during our last mission. Just like with Erek at Matcom, what she'd done at that camp was awfully hard to forget, and had made even _Rachel_ at her most ruthless look like an amateur.

There's no doubt in my mind that you could dump her in the scariest, most God-forsaken maximum security cesspool of a horrible foreign prison someplace, surrounded by big, tough guys and armed guards, and she'd just laugh before taking them all on, beating them to a literal pulp, and reducing the entire place to rubble. Literally.

I knew she'd never harm us unless there was a very good reason to, but still…It's hard to view someone with that power, who's like a cross between Daredevil and Jean Grey, like just another kid.

Marco seemed comfortable enough with her though, lolling on a bale of straw next to her. He'd come across her by chance while heading over, and brought her the candy pumpkins as a treat before they arrived together. I suspect that in her, he's finally found a girl that won't call him an annoying weirdo and stomp away, maybe even like him back a little. More power to him, I suppose.

Seriously though, I hope it works out.

Rachel was there too, arms casually crossed as she sat on a wooden box, now and again stealing glances up at Tobias in the rafters, keeping a lookout. And there was Ax, in his strangely attractive human morph.

The Yeerks think that we're a group of Andalite guerillas, and since an Andalite would be rather hard to miss walking around town, that means we must live in the forest most of the time.

They don't know of course, that Ax is the only true Andalite out there in the woods-which is just as well for us.

They've tried to exploit that assumption before by setting up a clear-cutting lumber facility in the forest, intending to strip away the trees and flush us out. Fortunately for Ax and Tobias, we managed to successfully sabotage that rather environmentally unfriendly plan.

But now it looked like the Yeerks were trying a more subtle, less dramatic method with this new type of Controller.

"Yep, a new, stealth mode model of Controller, sent out by Visser Three to go Andalite-and now earthbender-hunting," Marco nodded.

"Pfft," Toph went, waving her hand in cocky dismissal. "Like that ape-thing would be able to get a leg up on me, greatest eathbender in the universe, out in the woods. I don't even know why I bothered to get up and leave the cave with Mr. King this morning now."

(Still, that was probably a wise move,) Tobias replied. (If it came after you on the ground, sure, you could definitely take it, no doubt. But an attack from the trees, especially if it was coming fast, with you blind Toph? I'd call that pressing my luck, in my opinion.)

I nodded. "And we don't fully know what this thing is capable of in a fight yet, either. Better to play it safe."

That seemed to register with Toph.

"Valid points, I guess," she shrugged before nodding.

"At least it's not one of those horrid Veleek monsters again," Cassie commented as she massaged the pill down the goose's gullet, and then returned it to its cage. That had been an utter nightmare, trying to deal with that dust beast which homed in on our morphing energy.

"Yeah, but now we know how to deal with it, thanks to your humpback cannonball trick," Marco said.

"Still, a new species of camouflaged Controller is bad enough," Rachel said darkly. "Any ideas on how to take this thing down?" she asked, not without a hint of eagerness.

"Well first, we should look at what we know about this ape creature-which isn't much-before we form a plan to deal with it," I said. "Ax, have you ever heard of this species before?"

"Yes Prince Jake, but it has been discovered so recently that Andalite biologists have yet to even give it a name, and only the most basic details of its habits are known. No-ohn. Ohn," he enunciated. "As for whatever physical weaknesses it may possess, I cannot be of assistance there," he shrugged helplessly. "Ass-iss-tan-suh. Tan-suh."

"That's okay Ax," I assured him, even though I was secretly somewhat disappointed.

"I've got an idea though," Toph spoke up. "Actually it was Mr. King's, but still an idea."

"Run it by us then," Marco said.

Popping another candy pumpkin in her mouth and chewing before swallowing, she said, "First, I think we can all agree that the Yeerks have too many things working in their favor already as it is."

"Got that right," Cassie agreed as we all nodded. "On a good day we're only able to delay their progress at best."

"Exactly," Toph replied. "So we can't let them bring a new type of Controller into the mix if we can help it-and the way to do that is to make it seem like these ape creatures just can't deal with Earth."

I saw Marco's eyes light up as it dawned on him.

"And the best way to do that would be to make it seem like Earth's wildlife is just a bit too hazardous for their health-and we'll use this first one as a demonstration," he grinned.

"Very good Smart Aleck!" Toph praised him, her own lips parting in a pleased smile as she elbowed him hard in the ribs. It's her weird little way of showing you she cares.

"Ow!" But I saw him faintly smile through his scowl.

She told us briefly of Mr. King's suggestion, his recommendation that it should be killed in a way consistent with an attack by a dangerous animal, which would then give the Yeerks something to think about before sending yet more of these things out into the field.

"I don't know how strong these ape-creatures are exactly," Rachel said, "but they can't be stronger than my grizzly morph. If I can put down a Hork-Bajir with one blow, then that thing should be no problem. And isn't there a grizzly bear on our state flag?"

"Yes, but there haven't been any grizzlies in California since the 1920's," Cassie pointed out. "Any human-Controller with some knowledge about wildlife would see your tracks around the body Rachel, and figure out that we were the ones who did it."

"Okay," Rachel replied. "How about trying a black bear then? They can climb trees themselves, which would be a big advantage when fighting this thing."

(That might work,) Tobias said, (except that none of us have black bear morphs, and I'm not sure if a bear would be able to keep up with this thing, not if it's as agile as the Chee say it is.)

"What about a rattlesnake?" Toph suggested. "I've got one as a morph, Smart Aleck has one, and Antelope Boy has one too," she said, gesturing toward Ax. "Can they climb trees at all?" she wondered, cocking her head in contemplation.

"A little," Cassie said. "Not much, but they can definitely slither up into bushes and partly fallen trees. And there're definitely plenty of them in the hills."

"That's actually a fairly good idea," Marco agreed. "Still though," he said thoughtfully, "It'd be tricky for one of us to get into a good position to strike at the thing, or even lure it close enough to someone in snake morph."

"And let's not forget," I chimed in, "that the Chee said this thing has leathery hide, like a pig's. A rattlesnake's fangs would probably just bounce off or deliver only a little venom."

"You know what I suggest? Personally," Cassie said, biting her lip pensively, "I think our best bet would be to go after this thing as a pack of wolves, either catch it on the ground, or lure it there-then overwhelm it together."

"Wolves it is then," I said as I started to stand up. "Everyone okay with that plan?"

"Yes Prince Jake," Ax said as everyone else nodded.

"All righty then," Marco replied as he sat up, clasping his hands together. "When will this next moment of Animorphs quality time be taking place, Big Jake?"

"Well, first we have to go out and find this thing," I said, "which'll probably be pretty difficult unless it's moving around. We'll go out Friday evening, split up to look for it while there's still light, then pick up the search Saturday morning. If we still fail to find it on Saturday, we'll comb the forest on Sunday."

"Why can't we do it tonight?" Toph asked, a bit puzzled. "The sooner this ape-thing is found and killed, the sooner I can use my cave again, and even more importantly, the sooner Ax can return to his scoop and be safe in the forest."

"It is no hardship for me to spend a few days in an isolated section of woodland until this creature is eliminated," Ax assured her. "Eye-so-lai-ted. Eye-so. Your concerns for my well-being are appreciated though," he added, snapping out of his fun with mouth sounds moment.

"I know I sure can't," I said. "I've got to get home and start making headway on this big genetics report."

She raked the rest of us with her unseeing gaze, eager to get going, alert for support.

"I'd be happy to go with you if I could Toph," Rachel apologetically shrugged. "But it's not gonna happen tonight. Jordan's having her choir concert later, and I can't miss that."

"Plus, it could easily take us several hours, maybe even days to find this ape thing," Marco added. "Something tells me this creature won't be moving around at night, or at least, not if it has to, and the chances we'd find it with what little light there is left are about as small as your average fly."

(You could always morph goshawk and help me look for it tomorrow morning, after breakfast,) Tobias offered. (Maybe you'd see things down among the trees that I'd miss from above. Or you could smell it out as a dog or fox, cover more bases that way.)

That seemed to placate her.

"That'll be fine with me then," she replied as she stood up. "But like I said, the quicker we get rid of this thing, the better."

I had to agree there.

But it wouldn't be today.

* * *

**Toph Beifong.**

Toph Beifong.

For someone who's spent the first fourteen years of her life blind, I was getting the hang of seeing surprisingly fast, although I still have trouble with some of the more detailed stuff like facial expressions or noticing insects that aren't moving.

I was doing pretty well with the idea of flying too, of separating myself from the earth and enjoying the sensation of freedom as I glided on a bird's wings.

Too bad I couldn't do it with Twinkletoes on his glider. That would just be awesome, the two of us actually being able to fly together for once.

And the raven I'd just morphed sure enjoyed it too, and sometimes I just let her mind take over as I headed to Hawk Boy's meadow, laughing in our head as "we" swooped up, then down through the air like one of those massive, insane metal contraptions called roller coasters at The Gardens, closed a wing to fall at a sharp angle through the air, or did a barrel roll, the sky and the ground flashing through my sharp bird vision.

I entered his territory and circled for a bit before my raven eyes noticed Tobias standing on a branch. He was tearing at a half-eaten gopher he'd caught, blood coating his hooked beak as he crouched over it, wings outspread to hide it.

Both the raven's mind and mine were excited to see him, though it was for entirely different reasons.

One thing I've learned from transforming into a raven is that they've got one major sense of mischief. They love to tease and steal from other animals whenever they think they can get away with it, and this one was eager to bait this smaller hawk off his appealing kill.

As I glided up to the tree, Tobias looked up and crouched even lower over his breakfast, defiantly staring at me with those piercing yellow eyes, ready to fight me off if he had to.

(Don't worry Hawk Boy, it's just me,) I told him as I chose a nearby branch, flared to kill the speed, and curved my raven toes around it.

(Thank Goodness,) he sighed, relieved, in head-talk. (Sorry to get aggressive like that, but I've had the actual thing swipe hard-earned meals from me too many times out here in the woods.)

(Well, you don't have to worry about me Hawk Boy,) I replied. (I've had my breakfast already. Besides, gopher always goes right to my waist.)

We both had a good laugh about that.

(Anyway,) Hawk Boy went on as he tore away another bloody chunk of gopher and bolted it, (I'm guessing you must be here to help me search for this tree-mimicking ape creature.)

(That I am,) I replied. (Just tell me whenever you're ready.)

(Well, first I need to make a stop by Ax-man's new chunk of forest before we get going, so he can add his own set of eyes and keep track of time for you too. Then we'll get this show on the road and see if we can't find ourselves an overgrown monkey of a Controller.)

(And if we do find it today, then what?)

(I'm not really sure at the moment,) Tobias admitted. (But we'd come away with a good idea of where to look for it next time at least, when the others are free to join us, and you'd know its scent too to help locate it faster. I'd hesitate to attack it outright though, since there's only the three of us and we're still in the dark about exactly what this thing's abilities are like.)

(Well, at any rate I think I'll be getting down to earth now to demorph and rest a bit before you show up with Ax,) I commented, snickering at my own pun as I hopped to a lower branch, cocking the raven's head to get a better view of things. (Enjoy your gopher, Hawk Boy.)

Once back on sweet solid ground, I focused and bent the bird's body back into my own, feeling the heavy beak soften and melt back into my face, my spindly legs become thick and strong with muscle, my wings reshape themselves into hands, and my feet turn back into ones that could connect with the earth again as I grew taller and lost the feathers.

I walked over to a nearby tree and sat down under it to take a breather, my vision useless once more as I listened to the insects and the birds and felt the squirrels run about, dressed in bike shorts and a fairly tight fitting "tank top."

After a few minutes, I "heard" Hawk Boy say from above me, (Okay Toph, I'm heading out to get Ax now. We'll let you know when we're almost back here, so then you can morph and join us.)

"Sure thing," I said.

I bent a stone, about the size of a plum, out of the dirt beneath me and killed some time by using my bending to change it into different shapes. A ball, a cylinder, a pyramid, a small dome, breaking it into sand and then sticking it back into solid rock again, seeing how flat of a circle I could make from it.

And I wondered, if my students, my parents, my friends back on my home-What did Ax call it? A planet? Yes, that was it, my 'planet-'could see what I was about to do with my body, how would they react?

On the world I know, everyone in the Four Nations takes bending the elements for granted, as much a part of our race as our lips or elbows or hair or feet.

But how shocked would they be to see someone who could bend _their own body_ into another creature's? See their face and arms and hands and chest twist and stretch and buckle and warp in some crazy, nightmare vision, feathers and fur grow out of their skin like spring grass, hear their bones, teeth and tendons grind, crack, strain, and rasp like rock being actively bent as they changed and shifted in ways that should by all rights, be making you scream in an agony beyond belief?

_Their heads would probably explode,_ I thought._ They'd think I'd become a monster or possessed by an evil spirit or something, probably. And of course, Ho Tun would immediately yell that we were all doomed._

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the head-talk voice of Antelope Boy, fairly close by and obviously in his harrier morph.

(Hello there Toph,) he greeted me. (Are you prepared to assist us in the search?)

I nodded. "Just give me a minute to morph," I said as I got to my feet and brushed myself off. 

I bowed my head, thinking briefly.

Ax and Tobias would be plenty of eyes in the sky already, so I'd try to smell for it on the ground. But it would also have to be a morph that could travel for a long distance, with eyes hopefully good enough to pick this Controller out from its surroundings, and if I had to fight-a possibility that I can't exactly say bothered me-one that would be a good match for this thing.

Then it hit me, and I grinned.

Red. My foster "mom's" pit bull. Or American Staffordshire terrier, if you want to get technical. Wherever that place is.

"Bow wow," I said smoothly to myself, chuckling.

Pushing my excitement and anticipation aside, I focused on the dog.

The first change I noticed was my chest.

There was a grinding, crackling sound as my ribs spread apart and my breastbone widened, moving away from my body at the same time, making it feel like a footstool was magically growing inside of me.

My hips rotated forward with a slow, nasty series of popping sounds, forcing my upper body to bend down closer to the ground as the bones of my legs and arms lengthened and I began to get somewhat smaller.

And then-the muscles that started forming!

Any dummy can tell that I'm one impressively toned young lady, thank you very much, which I'm rather proud about, of course. But my tough little frame had nothing on the pit bull as I felt coiled, dense masses of muscle bulge, expand under my vanishing clothes and changing skin, rapidly becoming covered in a sleek, short coat of red-brown hair above and white below.

The most amazing change to my muscles was around my jaws. As my ears slid up my head and my entire face jutted outward, filling my forming vision, my teeth itching like crazy as they became sharper, narrower, and stronger, enormous balls of muscle swelled out of my cheeks and jowls.

These were crazy big muscles, muscles meant for holding on like a living vise and staying clamped on, for jerking and shaking the enemy, the prey, never letting go until either it quit moving, you got too badly hurt yourself to go on, or you decided you were good and ready to release.

And the jaws themselves were pretty impressive. They were huge and blocky, both at face value and for the size of my body.

My jaws and teeth could just manage to deal with shelled nuts or a tough steak.

The pit bull's though, could do far better than that. They could latch onto a cow's throat, and never give an inch-even while being stomped, thrown against the ground, and swung around like a rag-until it was ripped out.

My knees reversed with a sharp _crack_, and I fell forward onto my hands, already turning into stout paws with leathery pads as I felt my fingers shrink in on themselves, and my nails transform into pale white claws.

I felt my belly sink inward, become pinched, as my lungs and heart expanded in my dog chest, and I heard these wet sounds as my guts shifted and shrunk.

As a finishing touch, a tail grew out of my butt and began casually wagging.

I was Red. A perfect copy of her, standing out in the woods.

(Okay,) I said, filled with both the dog's eagerness and my own. (I'm ready when you guys are.)

(Cool,) Tobias said. (Now, the way we're going to do this is head towards the mountains in a general line. You'll be at the center Toph, smelling for this thing. I'll be searching north of you. Ax? You search off to the south, and dip down into the trees now and then to look for this thing. I'll do the same.)

(I shall Tobias. How far do you recommend separating ourselves?)

After thinking briefly, he replied, (Toph and I should definitely stay within thought-speak range of each other, but I don't think there should be a problem with you going outside that, as long as we can both still see one another. Just give some sort of signal though whenever you're going to land and demorph so I can let Toph know she should do the same, okay Ax-man?)

(And a different one for if you find this ape Controller,) I added.

(Certainly, Tobias, Toph.)

(Well, birds gotta fly and dogs gotta run, so let's go and see what we can come up with,) I said as I broke into an excited lope, holding my head close to the ground while listening carefully with my huge dog ears.

You can never understand what it's like to have a dog's nose, how every time you morph one, the intensity of it all hits you like a bent stone column to the butt.

I could smell the dead leaves, the resin of the pine and juniper trees, the living leaves on the trees, the bark and the rich, earthy smell of mushrooms and rotting wood.

I smelt the scent trails of mice, voles, turkeys, rats, deer. A gopher snake's recently shed skin. Spiders and insects and millipedes. A skunk. A fox's scent marks, and those of a male deer as well. Places where squirrels had dug. The remains of a ground squirrel a weasel had killed and eaten in its own burrow four days ago. The muskrat that had passed through two days ago, searching for a marsh or pond it could make a new home in. Chipmunks and a coyote, deer poop and wandering housecats.

But when you boiled it down, nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Not yet at least.

It was all excitement and sensation to the dog as I kept up an easy run, enjoying the satisfying feeling of my paws striking the good solid earth, claws biting into the dirt as I leapt fallen logs and skirted thorn thickets, ran through clearings. My head was nearly giddy from the sounds and smells and sights as Red experienced them, filled with eagerness to be tracking.

Just like in my world, I've learned that people here on Earth can have some pretty strong opinions about certain kinds of animals over others, and pit bulls are definitely one of these.

Once I heard Marco's dad, Peter, say that even though Euclid was a pain in the ass at times, at least he wasn't a pit bull, which he said were "batshit crazy," and "evil, stupid dogs," that liked to rip kids apart for no reason and society would be better off if they were just all destroyed. I also remember well how _Rachel_ had shown real tension when she'd seen Red for the first time, and her story of how one had tried to attack her and her sisters.

And even Smart Aleck has his own first-hand story, from before he'd moved to his current house, when he used to live in a dangerous, run-down part of the city, like the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se I guess. One Saturday morning, while he was walking back from some market called Super America where he'd bought some cereal for his breakfast, he suddenly heard this horrible commotion in someone's yard nearby.

There were dogs snarling and barking, at least three guys swearing and shouting, and this woman pleading, screaming in terror.

When he looked toward the sounds and carefully came closer, he said he saw a black woman in her early sixties lying on her back in the grass, screaming and twisting, trying to get up as two pit bulls circled and attacked her, biting her arms and legs and shaking, trying to go for her face.

One guy had a wooden baseball bat and was hitting the dogs as hard as he could at every chance he got, while two other men kept grabbing the dogs by their collars and pulling them off the woman. Sometimes one of the guys would try to stab one of the dogs with his pocket knife.

But the pit bulls would just tear or twist themselves loose and attack the helpless woman again, or even bite the men too. Blood was _everywhere_, and it was horrible.

Smart Aleck is no dummy, and as soon as he realized what was happening, he wisely made himself scarce before the dogs could include him too. While he was bailing outta there, he was pretty sure he heard police sirens coming down the street, which made him relieved.

Later, he found out that the dogs had been shot by police shortly after, and the woman had been saved, although she'd ended up losing her right arm below the elbow and lost a lot of blood. Intense stuff.

So pit bulls can obviously do a lot of damage and aren't to be taken lightly, that's clear, especially if they decide to attack.

But that can't be the whole story, since Red's never been anything but well-behaved to me and the other dogs, and she was also very friendly to Phet and the twins when they visited.

And Sunshine's told me that a lot of pit bulls that attack people probably weren't taught proper behavior, were kicked or otherwise abused at some time in their lives, or seriously neglected, spending all day sitting in some basement or chained to a tree, which is just inexcusable. (From what she says, a lot of people who get pit bulls do it not because they see them as pets, but as simply big, tough dogs they can scare people with.) Is it any surprise that dogs treated or raised that way would end up going crazy on someone?

In the end though, the best way you can truly understand an animal is to morph it.

I'd say the pit bull's mind was a very driven one. It was pretty smart as dogs go, and enjoyed having a task to do, especially if it involved physical activity. Like other dogs, she was super-happy and liked to goof around, play, be part of a pack, please the master and do good things-and that desire to make the master happy came through especially strong with Red .

But also like other dogs, there was a wild part to her nature too, something that loved and lived for chasing, hunting, searching for the prey and killing it. And fighting enemies, which I can totally get behind.

But when I fight, I've got the sense to know when to back off, respect the fact that the other guy's been defeated and let the loser crawl off to their pit of shame. And from what I've noticed or experienced, most dogs have the same mindset.

The pit bull was different. To her, _every_ dispute, every fight was to be treated as mega-serious business, where the only way to win it was determined by who was left standing and breathing at the end. You never let an enemy or the creature that you decided was prey live if you could help it. Never. You turned them into rags of meat first.

Besides, giving the battle your all was highly pleasing to the pack leader, as well as exciting.

Although it didn't really understand what was going on, the dog's mind quickly seemed to regard me as like a pack leader in her head, which was great. I mostly only had to "tell" her commands in head-talk, and she listened wonderfully!

The forest is a pretty big place, and Boss Boy was right when he'd said finding this thing, even with a dog's nose, wouldn't be easy.

We searched until Ax's time in morph and mine became short, at which point I morphed back, rested for a bit while Hawk Boy kept watch over me, then morphed Red a second time and continued on.

We searched for almost another cycle in morph, and still came up with nothing.

But then, in dog morph for the third time that day, I was trotting up the bed of a stream when I smelt something, a smell that just didn't belong.

Immediately I swerved toward the source.

Tobias must've noticed, for then I heard him ask, (You find something Toph?)

(I don't know. Maybe,) I answered as I trotted to the spot upstream where it was coming from, dog nose to the ground, but also watching the trees for movement.

And then, as I came up to it, I knew. There were tracks in the sand and grass, kind of like a person's but smaller, thinner and more curved.

(It was here!) I said, wagging my dog tail in glee as I looked around and up at the trees. (It came to this spot to drink Tobias, and it's still not far away. We can probably catch up to it in just several minutes. Maybe we can finally get a good look at this thing,) I said as I started into a lope again, headed in the direction of where the creature's scent was the strongest.

(Just be careful down there,) Hawk Boy warned me. (Today is just about finding where this thing is, not taking it on if we don't have to.)

(Yeah, yeah, I know.)

Dean had been right when he'd said that the ape creature didn't produce much of a smell. Also, what scent there was from it mostly came from up in the branches, which made it even harder for the dog's nose to pick it up.

Still though, it was unique, there was just enough for me to follow, and it was getting stronger with every stride.

Now I could detect other smells on the air, ones that excited and confused me at the same time.

The fresh smell of two coyotes. The older one, from a few hours ago, of a mule deer doe and her two fawns, overlaid with fear and the smell of having been chased.

And fresh blood.

What did all this mean?

Carefully, not knowing what to expect, I slowed down to a slinking walk, ready for whatever would come.

Suddenly I heard two loud, surprised yelps from up ahead, and then a sharp, aggressive screech as something jumped to the ground and ran forward.

(Wow!) I heard Hawk Boy exclaim. (Man, that's a crazy-looking thing! Yeah, I'd be running if I were you too Mr. and Mrs. Coyote, for damn sure.)

(You see it Hawk Boy?) I asked.

(You bet I see it! Wow, I wasn't sure we'd even come close to finding this thing today, but now I'm looking at it running out into the open, in broad daylight, to swipe and pig out on a coyote kill! Gosh, look at those teeth...)

I didn't bother answering as I crept forward under the trees, head down, ears and eyes focused as I placed one foot in front of the other, moving closer to the small clearing.

I was very close to it now, maybe just a few paces away.

Carefully, I stuck my stout dog head around a bush on the edge of the open area, and saw it for the first time.

It really was a crazy-looking creature, squatting on bowed legs as it clasped the partly eaten fawn in two pairs of leathery, somewhat humanlike hands, tearing off flesh and chewing it.

Its skin was tough and formed like overlapping plates of leathery armor that really did look like the bark of a tree, with patches of green and white and yellow to seem like leaves.

Although it was facing away from me at an angle, I could still see that it had large, sunken eyes, gray and black in color, a flat, spreading nose above a wrinkly, monkey-like mouth, and a pair of huge ears which constantly turned and listened.

It also had one impressive looking set of fangs in that mouth too, from what I could see.

Each of its four hands had as many fingers, and two thumbs, one on each side, tipped by curved claws that truly did look a lot like thorns, digging into the fawn's flesh.

It somehow managed to look both silly and scary at the same time, crouched there in the little clearing as it enjoyed its stolen meal.

Okay, I'd found it, and seen it for myself. And now we knew where we'd probably be able to find this thing next time, when the rest of the Animorphs could come along with us. Now what?

Maybe I should've turned and walked away right then. Maybe it was stupid of me, reckless, to do what I chose to do next, with only Hawk Boy as backup.

But I made a snap decision right then that this was a perfect opportunity to kill this thing. Right now, while it was distracted by eating and vulnerable on the ground. The time for waiting and listening had passed.

As I crouched and tensed my leg muscles, I "heard" Tobias cry, (Toph no, what are you doing?)

(I'm going in Hawk Boy,) I told him grimly.

(One on one? Are you crazy? At least wait for me to go get Ax so he can demorph and help you out with his tail!)

But I was already committed, breaking cover and hurtling over the grass at the ape creature, snarling to frighten it.

It gave a startled, quacking bark, dropping the fawn and leaping to its feet, trying to turn to face me.

Too late.

I leapt and clamped down like a trap on its upper right arm, between the elbow and wrist, shaking and yanking to throw it off balance.

But this thing's hide was tough, acting like a stiff shield, and it was difficult just to be able to pierce it with the pit bull's teeth.

Still, it didn't like what I was doing to it, and I heard it shriek as I ground down. I got another unexpected surprise when, instead of pulling back against my weight, it actually _lunged_ at me, bottom right arm reaching under for my throat as both the left ones, claws bared, launched themselves at my face, its eyes glaring.

I was having none of that, and closed my own eyes, twisting my body around behind it, continuing to hang on to its arm and shaking violently.

That threw it off balance, and it stumbled. I let go and sprung again, aiming for the creature's thick neck, snapping my fangs.

But the ape creature had a sort of small, jutting flap of tough skin on its lower jaw, like a beard I guess, and at the last moment it thrust this chin shield down and forward so that I grabbed that instead of its throat.

For several seconds we almost seemed to be performing a savage dance together, both of us standing on our back feet, my front ones pressing against its chest. I growled and tried to flatten the Controller with my weight, constantly yanking and shaking.

For its part, the ape creature punched me with surprising power, slashed at me with its claws, tearing fur and flesh from my sides and shoulders and chest.

It just made me and the dog even angrier, and more determined.

(Leave it Toph!) Tobias shouted.

Then the Controller, at least ten Earthly "pounds" lighter than me, began to go down on its back.

Seeing my moment, I let go of its chin shield thing and bored in for its throat. And my teeth found it.

But the skin was awfully thick there too, hard to get a grip on, and as I struggled to get good leverage, I saw both the hands on the creature's upper pair of arms, claws bared, coming right for my eyes, intending to gouge them out of my head.

No choice. I had to let go if I didn't want to be blinded.

I might-and **_will_**-do pretty awesome as a blind earthbender in a fight. But as a blind dog, not so much.

As it was, I still got a vicious slash across the face as I jumped back and to my right with a yelp.

I went right back in, intent on pressing home my advantage while the ape creature was still more or less lying on its back, arms flailing.

The Controller was no fool though, and quick as the strike of a rattle-adder, it grabbed a bunch of dirt with one of its right hands. And threw it right in my face.

(Aaaahhhhh!) I cried at the stinging pain, jerking back and pawing at my smarting eyes, crying out as I felt one of the creature's feet rake my broad chest.

Through my terror, I heard the apelike Controller spring to its feet and begin to bound over the grass and flowers, toward the nearest trees. There, up above me, it would have all the advantages. I couldn't let it get away, not now!

Forcing my tearing, hurting eyes open, blurred by the dog's tears, I saw the creature running on all fours, and launched myself at it yet again, blood dripping from its claw wounds.

(Toph, get out of there!) Hawk Boy urged. (You aren't going to take this thing on your own, so just let it go!)

I should have listened.

But the battle fury had consumed me, leaving me with nothing but a furious urge to maul, to kill, to destroy this thing.

It would be close, but the ape creature wouldn't make the closest tree in time. I knew it, and it knew it.

So it wheeled to face me, bracing itself for the impact as we both charged each other.

We collided, and I don't really have all that clear a memory of what happened next, except that we became locked in a little storm of dust and blood and pain and snarls and screeches as we went at each other with tooth and claw, shaking and rolling and swiping.

I had the advantage of brute strength, my powerful jaws, and weight. But it was also the first time I'd ever really fought in morph too.

And the ape creature had strength of its own, six sets of claws, fists, fangs of its own, and shocking agility.

Somehow in all of this, it managed to get on my back, and I could only roll and struggle helplessly as it started to tear at my neck with its own terrible fangs, slice into my jaw muscles with its claws, crying out as they pierced the skin.

(Toph!) Hawk Boy cried in horror. (That's it, I'm doing this!)

"_Tsssseeeerrrr_!" he cried as I saw him drop out of the sky like a stone, raking the ape creature's huge, leathery ears.

"_Hhaaa-rraawwppp_!" it cried in pain as it loosened its grip and stopped biting me.

But it still didn't, wouldn't let go as I thrashed and yelped!

As we continued to struggle, I caught flashes of Tobias flapping for altitude as he said, (Ax, if you can hear me buddy, we majorly need your help over here!)

He dove again, so amazingly fast, talons extended forward.

This time though, the Controller knew what he was up to.

Craftily, it pretended to only be focused on me as we snarled and fought.

Then, seconds before Tobias struck, it leapt off my back, shoving me painfully to the ground. At the same time, with amazing reflexes, the ape creature tensed its legs and jumped up at Tobias!

There was no way Tobias could have gotten out of its way. I could only watch in horror as the Controller swung a beefy, crooked fist, delivering a brutally hard punch to his hawk chest, so hard that I heard his breastbone shatter with a sickening CRACK.

(AAAAAHHHHHHH!) he cried out in agony, tumbling helplessly to the ground.

(Tobias!) I heard Antelope Boy's still-distant head talk voice shout.

I could do nothing but scream myself as the ape creature punched Tobias again, in the right side, while he was still falling through the air, then grabbed him and bit deep into his back.

He screamed in my head again, right before the creature coolly seized his left wing and savagely flung him against the ground, once, twice, before tossing him away like trash, dying.

(Oh God, ma-major ouch-) he tried to groan, and then fell silent.

Oh Tu Gong, no! NO! What had I just done!? I'd just gotten Tobias, the group's scout, my friend, Ax's friend, a member of our tiny team _killed_ because I'd been so overeager to attack this thing, too impatient to at least wait for Antelope Boy to come back us up! What a stupid idiot I'd just been!

And now I was probably going to join him too in a few seconds!

You gotta understand, even a pit bull's body can only take so much punishment, and mine was near its limit. I'd lost a lot of blood by now, making me feel so, so weak. One of my lungs seemed to be punctured, making a wheezing sound. My ears were just shredded, I couldn't see out of my right eye, and my face was a bloody mess of punctures and slashes, sliced and torn flesh as blood trickled from wounds all over my body, some reaching right to the bone.

But a renewed fury and desperation made me face the ape creature one more time as it prepared to finish me. If I could hold it off for just a few more minutes, long enough for Ax to arrive at last and demorph...

It confidently gave me a humorless grin before it leapt at me.

I managed to give a lopsided snarl that sure felt a lot stronger than I did before doing the same.

As I circled and dodged around the ape creature, now trying not to come to grips with it any more than I had to, I suddenly thought I saw Tobias...changing, losing his feathers, getting bigger and becoming gray. He was alive! And he was morphing to come help me!

My joy caused me to become distracted though. It was a deadly mistake, and I felt a harsh blow against my torn side in the next moment, the world spinning wildly in my one remaining, half-open eye as I rolled, screaming both in my head and with the dog's voice. I found myself on my back as the ape creature pounced on me, sunken gray and black eyes glaring with eagerness and hate, fangs bared.

There was just enough time for me to raise up all four of my paws and thrust them straight up and out, holding the ape creature Controller away from me with the last of my dog body's strength.

But it shoved its weight against them, forced them down a few inches.

And then a few more.

And then a few more.

I was going to lose. I was going to die out here!

And then...

"HHRRRREEEEEUUUUHHHHH!"

The ape creature jerked upright and whipped its head to the left as it gave a scream of its own and let go of me.

It had good reason, for charging at both us in a sort of stiff-legged run was Tobias, no longer a hawk, but now a full-grown African elephant with tusks like spears and flapping ears like sails.

(Get away from her, you Planet of The Apes reject!) he roared as he trumpeted again.

Like I said, this new Controller was fast and quick.

But turns out, elephants are too.

The ape creature wheeled and bolted for the nearest big tree.

Tobias was already stepping over me though, his body and legs blocking out the sun, head lowered, trunk curled underneath his huge elephant head.

He was mad, and he wasn't going to let this beast get away without at least teaching it a lesson first.

I carefully turned, and heard him trumpet a third time as he flicked out his trunk, striking the ape creature and sending it spinning like a top, scratching at the ground as it screamed like a ninny.

A blow from an elephant's trunk can kill a steer in less time than it takes to sigh, so that definitely couldn't have felt good.

The creature's agility and armored skin must've provided just enough protection though, because it somehow managed to bounce right back and this time get to a tree, flashing around to the other side of the trunk and scrambling up like a cat.

Tobias lowered his enormous gray head again, and rammed the tree, the wood cracking like breaking stone as the ape creature screamed in fright.

But then it was up in the branches, and in the next moment, one of its arms drooping, it was frantically swinging away through the trees, hand over hand, quickly disappearing from sight.

I didn't bother to watch it leave. I was hurt bad, gasping and bleeding, experiencing pain like I'd never known as my one remaining eye closed. I had to demorph, or I would die.

Ax arrived then, because I heard him shout, (Demorph Toph! Demorph!)

(I think she's going into shock,) Tobias told him, voice sharp with concern. (Toph, stay with us girl,) he urged, and I felt one of his massive elephant feet lightly kick me, keeping me from slipping away.

I did so, focusing on my own body, praying, hoping my wounds would be healed.

Hair lengthened on my scalp, sliding down over my shoulders. My tail withered away to nothing. My torn, stabbed chest became flatter, and the toes on my front paws became longer, thinner, as the callused pads vanished to form human hands. Fur disappeared to be replaced by bare skin and clothing, and my teeth reformed into simple pebbles.

The awful pain dulled, and then vanished. The dog's mind did too, and mine became clearer as I felt my bending begin to return.

The first thing I did, when I was in my body again, was to fall on my chest and embrace the ground itself, pressing my cheek against it, smiling as I felt it, welcoming it back into my awareness again.

I stayed that way for a few moments, breathing shakily.

I'm not ashamed to say that when I sat up, I was shaking, trembling all over from fear of what'd almost happened, and I suddenly burst out crying, feeling the tears stream down my face and land in the grass which smelt of dog blood. My blood!

I cried for a long time, from fear and horror and guilt and shame, as Tobias comforted me, stroking me with his elephant trunk as my body shook. Ax wasn't so touchy-feely, but he still stood by me, just being there as he told me reassuring things in head-talk, saying that I was safe now, that it would be okay, that I'd been very brave.

Eventually, I calmed down enough to the point where I stopped crying. I shuffled around on my feet, still squatting, and grabbed onto Tobias' elephant trunk, using it to pull myself into a standing position.

I hugged one of his front legs as he stroked my back again, raising my head up towards his.

"You-you just saved my life today Hawk Boy," I said in wonder, grateful. "I'd say thanks so much, but that still wouldn't be enough to say how I feel."

(Maybe not, but it'll do for me,) he told me. (And hey, it's no problem. That's just what we do for each other.)

I nodded, thinly smiling.

(We are all comrades together,) Ax agreed. (But I suggest that now, after such a distressing event, we should all leave this place and return to more secure ones for the rest of the day.)

I was only too glad to do this.

Tobias morphed back to hawk, Ax morphed a gull, and I morphed a feral pig, an animal that was fast on its feet and had some pretty tough skin of its own, not to mention a nasty set of slashing tusks. It made me feel a lot safer as I ran back through the trees, barreling through thickets and easily weaving among the trunks.

When we finally got close to the outskirts of town, I demorphed, and after saying goodbye to Hawk and Antelope Boy, silently walked back to Olivia's by myself. I knew Tobias would tell Jake all about what'd just happened, and that Boss Boy was going to be ticked off when he did.

I was such an emotional mess the whole way back.

As my terror at having come so close to death drained away a bit, new feelings replaced them.

Shame and guilt about how I'd done such a dumb thing, attacked when I shouldn't have, without thinking things through, nearly gotten Hawk Boy killed protecting me.

Worry about what Jake would say when he found out that I'd disobeyed his orders. Not that he could ever actually _harm_ me as I was of course, even if he wanted to, even in his tiger or rhino morphs. Still, it's never a good feeling to have someone be mad at you-especially when you understand that you've messed up big time, and now they're going to rub it in.

But most of all, I was angry, angry at myself and at having been beaten. My first real battle, ever, against an enemy in morph-a pit bull morph at that!-and I'd gotten my butt kicked miserably! I couldn't stand the idea.

I swore right then, made up my mind that one way or another, I was going to even the score with this ape creature that looked like a tree in the end. After all, I'd lost to it.

And I do **_not_** like to lose.

* * *

**Uh oh, Toph's got a grudge now...**

**I know that pit bull terriers (which is actually a fairly generic term for at least four breeds of dogs that have been bred for blood sports and have a similar body shape) are dogs which often generate a lot of controversy among the public and in the media. For some people, they are at heart, loyal, affectionate "nanny dogs," that make wonderful companions and will usually only attack people or other dogs if they've been mistreated, come from bad bloodlines, neglected, abused, improperly socialized when young, or encouraged to be aggressive. For others, pit bulls are savage, ugly animals with destructive power and short fuses, man-made killers of the defenseless that are little better than alligators in fur coats and just about as deserving of a place in civilized society.**

**As with so many of the other viewpoints people tend to take about certain animals, I personally suspect the truth lies somewhere in between, and I've tried to present, based on my own experiences with pit bulls, the history of these breeds, and what I've seen or read about them, what I feel is a reasonable, and at least fairly accurate portrait of how I suspect their minds would tick. If anyone is offended by my interpretation, I apologize.**

**Finally, I think people should take the time to remember that breeding and genetics DO have an extremely important role to play in what the "template" of a dog's personality and behavior is going to be like. At the same time though, it's essential to realize that animals are very much individuals, and that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to what any given dog may do in a situation. That being said, I feel that any aggressive behavior displayed by a pit bull, however mild it may seem, is never to be tolerated, and should be dealt with immediately, especially if young children or elderly people live anywhere near the dog.**


	28. Chapter 28

Ax.

It was later that day, after Prince Jake had been informed of Toph's reckless attack on the creature, and in his frustration, he'd called another meeting at Cassie's barn to admonish her and adjust our plans in response.

My journey there had taken longer than usual, for ever since a Chee had informed me of the experimental Controller's presence in the national forest, I had relocated to a nearby state park several Earthly miles away as a precaution, where I'd been dwelling in its woodlands and would continue to do so until we destroyed it. If nothing else, it was interesting to be able to explore an entirely new area of forest at my leisure.

After Tobias had come to get me, I had flown there with him in gull morph, landed near Cassie's farm in the forest, demorphed, and then morphed human. To perform such a variety of morphs in quick succession is often quite mentally tiring, so I was content to simply squat on my human thighs and just listen to the proceedings, the sharp scents of horses, foxes, and other animals filling my single pair of nostrils.

During my time on Earth, I have noticed that humans use many strange expressions, which they call "figures of speech," whose meanings can easily be misinterpreted and often are not readily obvious.

One of these expressions is called, in the present tense, "facing the music." When I was initially introduced to this term, I assumed it simply meant to turn around and orient one's body towards a source of broadcast human music. In time though, I learnt that it actually alludes to nobly accepting criticism, censure, or any other consequences of one's undesirable behavior.

And it was Toph's moment to face the music.

She stood, her arms crossed in righteous irritation, her very long hair secured in the style known as a "ponytail," as Prince Jake chastised her, defiant, nonchalant, and uncomfortable by turns.

He was pacing back and forth, jaw set, speaking in the low, grim, smooth tone he uses when displeased.

"Attacking it on your own Toph?!" he cried as he glared at her. "With only Tobias as backup? What were you _thinking_?!"

"Well, I thought I could handle it!" she replied. "And it's not like you said I _couldn't_ go after it."

"Ooh, she got you on a technicality there, Big Jake," Marco said.

Prince Jake sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, near the forehead. "Guess I should've been more clear with my words then. Still, you blew off our group's plan, and at the very least you should've waited for Ax to show up to help you out."

"Yeah, I probably should've," she agreed, lowering her head and sighing in acquiescence. "Okay, I _know_ I should've," she amended.

"Well, lesson learned I hope," Cassie said, her tone a mixture of concern and tolerance. "Please don't make a mistake like that again. We don't want to lose you."

Toph reluctantly nodded.

From what I could tell so far, Toph seemed to acknowledge and respect Prince Jake's position as a leader. Yet like Rachel, she could also be strong-willed and impetuous.

As would be anticipated and expected of any warrior, she'd taken advantage of an opportunity to attack an enemy while it was off guard and in a vulnerable position. But she had also behaved in a rash, overconfident manner, underestimating her opponent's power and abilities-and this had nearly cost both her and Tobias their lives.

I would be lying if I didn't say that the thought of that, of losing both her and my nephew due to just one moment of miscalculation, my two closest companions, chilled and horrified me just to consider it, had eaten at my hearts.

"Personally, I think that she was pretty awesome," Rachel chimed in approvingly, lips forming a faint smile as she turned towards Toph. "Got a chance to kick ass on that thing, and you took it," she grinned, baring her human teeth. "One on one."

Toph grinned back at her, giving a pleased nod and a thumbs-up gesture. "You gotta strike when the iron is hot, that's what I say."

"And that attitude damn near got not only _herself_ pointlessly killed, but Tobias too," Prince Jake droned, causing Toph to cringe slightly at his rebuke.

(Jake, its okay dude,) Tobias placated. (She's alive, and I'm alive.)

Feeling I should probably speak in her defense as well, I added, "And from what I saw of this experimental Controller as it fled the scene, at least one of its limbs had been seriously damaged by her attack. Aah. Tack. This should make it easier to battle in the future."

"But now this ape creature thing knows we're on to it-especially since Tobias had to morph an elephant to get her butt out of trouble," Prince Jake replied, switching his gaze from me to glare at Toph, who steadily, sightlessly glared back. "And last time I checked, those aren't exactly the sort of thing you find out here in the woods. Eerrggghhh!"

"Well, that might not actually be a bad thing," Marco pointed out. "Now that this Controller "knows" Andalites are after it, it'll be a lot harder to get the drop on (and I saw a brief flash of guilt come across Toph's face at that point), yeah. But on the other hand, that also means it'll be staying in that patch of the forest for at least a few days now, in case we show up again, so we'll have a much better idea where to find it."

"See?" Rachel emphasized. "Looks like Toph did us a few favors by trying to take that thing."

"It'll certainly help us," Prince Jake acknowledged. "Anyhow," he went on dismissively, tone still a bit annoyed, "what's done is done I guess. Now we've got to figure out a plan for this weekend, namely exactly how we're going to get this apelike Controller on the ground where we want it. Catching it away from the trees like Toph did was a stroke of luck that won't happen twice."

We formed a plan that essentially involved me, in my natural body, pretending to be obliviously walking through the same area of forest that the creature and Toph had fought in. Hopefully, this new Controller would detect me, then leap down to chase me over the forest floor-or at least pursue me by swinging through the lower branches of the trees-where it would then be vulnerable to being ambushed and seized by the other Animorphs in wolf morph.

According to Cassie, if the plan was executed well, it would seem to any other investigating Controllers that this apelike creature had been taken by surprise by a wolf pack while chasing either a deer or one of the Andalite bandits, hopefully the former.

Once the plan was agreed upon, we all took our leave of each other.

As I headed out the barn door, intending to demorph in the forest, morph a harrier, then fly to the isolated patch of forest I was currently living in while the creature was at large, I noticed Toph speaking to Cassie, even as the other girl began to place new straw in the horse stalls. From what I could hear, Toph was asking her about the great cats known as cougars and their interactions with wolves.

It was a puzzling topic of conversation to be sure, and it did raise a slight, momentary suspicion within me about why she wanted to know such information. But I assumed the earth-shifter had her unknown reasons, and decided that it was none of my affair as I walked across the barn floor on my precarious human legs.

* * *

_Cassie._

As Animorphs, we live a secret life that is like a cross between Saving Private Ryan and an episode of The Outer Limits. It's a testament to how amazingly adaptable and flexible the human mind is that somehow, over time, we've come to accept the things we do and see-the things we _become_-as just almost ordinary, to the point where sometimes it's the normal, everyday things that end up seeming surreal.

Right then, I was feeling that way as I decided, now that the meeting was over, to replace the straw in the stalls.

As I headed over to the stack of bales in one corner, I heard Toph walk up behind me.

"Okay if I lend you a hand?" she asked amiably as I turned in her direction.

"By all means," I replied with a smile, briefly looking into her eyes, their natural milky jade hidden by brown contacts before I turned to grab a bale and gently lower it to the floor before picking it up again.

But while I was happy for the help, it also struck me as odd that she was choosing to stick around like this after a meeting was finished. Normally she'd go right back either to her furnished cave in the woods or to Olivia's in town.

I gave a mental shrug. Perhaps she was just bored, and wanted something worthwhile to do with her time. Or maybe she simply enjoyed my company, found my presence comforting and welcoming.

Certainly, she'd had a majorly upsetting experience with the chimp creature just several hours ago, and I could totally understand how nearly getting killed like she had would make her want to spend time with someone she trusted as a way of dealing with it, even if it was just having me "being there."

Even though I know Toph's not really any more human than Ax is, she looks so much like one that sometimes I think of her as being like a Chinese version of me with much longer hair and Rachel's personality inside her, which I guess would be fairly accurate.

Like me, she's short for her age and very stocky, almost like a living extension of the rock she was born with the incredible power to manipulate, and as we worked, I saw the muscle of her bicep bulge and shudder under and around her prized meteor iron armband.

For a little while we were both silent, quickly settling into a rhythm where she'd grab a bale, bring it to me, I'd cut the twine, and then we'd both break it up and spread it around. It would be up to me though, to make sure the straw was spread evenly, and I had her stay back when I had to do it in the stalls that housed the deer and a male alpaca that had been found wandering around near the edge of town with a cracked, dislocated right shoulder and a flesh wound on the same side after being sideswiped by a car. (My dad thinks he was there either due to some moronic college prank gone wrong, or that since alpacas can be very valuable, he'd been rustled and somehow managed to break free from the vehicle transporting him. We see it all.)

After a bit though, she did speak.

"So Sunshine," she asked, "how are things going at school?"

I lightly shrugged. "Fine enough, I guess," I replied. "Since not much is really going on with the Yeerks right now, I've actually been able to keep up with my homework this month, and that's sure a good feeling. And not that it probably means much to you, but in Civics class-it's basically a class about American society and government-there's this big black girl called Shanice who's kind of been a jerk to me over the past few weeks, but I just try to let it go and report it to the teachers."

"That's too bad," Toph said. "Sounds like this Shanice could use a good dose of earthbending upside the head," she growled, smacking her fist into her palm.

I laughed, saying, "Thanks for the concern Toph, but I don't think we need to get quite that extreme or have you reveal yourself like that just yet."

"You see the Thongchais around at all?"

I nodded. "Yeah, sometimes I see them at lunch or between classes."

"Sweet," Toph grinned, even as she spread out another slab of straw from the bale. "Anyway, I've been thinking, after we take this ape thing down, do you think we could bring Mindy and Daniel here to hang out?"

I nodded. "Sure," I said. "And Phet too, if he wants to. In fact, not only could I show them the animals here at the clinic, I could introduce all three of you to horseback riding and how to guide a horse on your own."

"Really?" Toph cried, her eyes widening in excited anticipation. "That would be so awesome to do! Any idea if they're into horses at all?"

"I don't know about Daniel, but I'm thinking Mindy is," I said. "I've seen her wearing shirts at school with horses on them, and twice I noticed her reading books about horses in the school library, so she must be at least somewhat fond of them."

Toph nodded. "So she'll probably have fun at least. Good to know. Is learning to ride a horse hard Sunshine?"

"Not really," I told her. "The biggest things you really have to remember are to always keep a good grip on the reins, pay attention to what the horse is doing, and always stay calm, because if you start to freak, the horse is likely to freak too. Other than that, our horses are well-trained, and there shouldn't be any problems."

"Got ya. Should be a great time for all then."

"Yeah, it'll be fun," I agreed.

She fell silent for a bit then, thoughtful as we kept working.

"Sunshine, what do you know about cougars?" she asked abruptly.

It was a bit of a surprising request from her. "Lots of things," I said. "Anything in particular you want to know about them?"

"Yeah," she replied, eyes thoughtful. "Do they ever come across wolves? And if they do, what happens?"

"To answer your first question, sometimes," I said. "As for the outcome, that depends on the situation," I said. "Cougars are tough, and can kill some pretty big animals-but wolves have numbers on their side, and if a pack catches one on the ground, they'll kill the cat if they can."

"Whoa. That's unreal."

"Yeah. But on the other hand, if the cougar can get to a tree or onto some steep rocks, it'll be safe. And cougars will sometimes kill and eat lone wolves, or ones that are separate from their pack," I added.

"Huh, interesting to know. But what if either the cougar or the wolves have already killed a deer or some other animal, and then they stumble across each other?"

"Again, that depends on numbers," I said. "If it's a pack of wolves, they'll almost always chase the cougar away and take its kill for themselves-although there're a few cases of cougars and wolves sharing the same carcass together."

"That's what I thought," Toph nodded.

"But if it's a lone wolf, confronting the cat would be too risky. So it'll generally just hang back and wait until the cat leaves to take its share. Anything else you want to know?"

"Nope, you answered all my questions pretty well. Thanks Sunshine."

"You're welcome. Hope you don't mind me asking, but any reason why you wanted to know?"

I thought I saw her eyes widen slightly before she calmly said, "No real reason. It's just that I heard a cougar scream a few nights ago near a place where I'd seen a pair of wolves the same afternoon while hunting in goshawk morph."

Her explanation convinced me, and I thought no more about it as we continued to work. It was only later that I discovered what the true intention behind her questions had been.

We finished with the straw, and after brushing herself off, she said goodbye and headed out toward town, leaving me to measure out mealworms and sunflower seeds for the small birds.

* * *

_Toph Beifong_.

I walked down the dirt road that led from Cassie's, then turned to head toward town, blinking and occasionally shaking my head at the weird feeling of the flat, squishy-feeling "contact" things that neatly fit over my eyeballs and kept Controllers from noticing my real eye color.

As I felt the shocks of passing cars and trucks come up through the moccasins I had to wear, I started thinking about what Sunshine had just told me about what happened when wolves and cougars came across each other.

Slowly, I began to shape a plan together in my head, an idea for dealing with the ape creature that'd beaten me so bad earlier today. Of course, I'd be the one to deliver the killing blow, but now I was going to bring extra help along with me this time, give it more thought than just rushing in blindly, excuse the pun.

When I finally got back to Olivia's house, I felt for the weird doorbell thing on the gate post and pressed it to let her know I was here before opening the gate and stepping in, carefully closing it by hand as Cinnamon and Simon came out through the dog door to greet me, barking their heads off in excitement.

I told them hello and briefly petted them before walking to the front door and inviting myself in.

"Ni hao Toph!" the Chee said from the kitchen, sounding pleased and maybe a bit relieved to see me. "_I was wondering where you'd been,_" she said in Mandarin."_In fact, I was just thinking about heading over to your cave in the woods._"

"_You would've wasted a trip then. I just decided to stay behind at Cassie's for a while to help her with lugging straw and spreading it in the stalls,_" I told her, stretching my arms into the air.

"_Well that was nice of you to do_," she replied approvingly. "_I bet she appreciated the help_."

I nodded. "_She sure did. It also just felt good, doing some physical labor_."

Her voice turning a bit concerned, she asked, "_Jake wasn't too hard on you at the meeting, I hope_?"

I shrugged. "_Nothing I couldn't handle, or that you didn't tell me already today after I dragged my beaten butt back here_."

As you can probably guess, Yzark had been pretty shocked and concerned when I'd fessed up that afternoon about my first attack on the creature, and how it had gone badly wrong, then pleased that I was alive and okay.

There are times when I feel deeply sorry for the other Animorphs, how they have to deal with their emotions, especially Jake, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco. At least Hawk Boy and Ax can get together whenever they want and tell each other how they feel, out loud, just let it out whenever they're upset or sad or scared after a battle or some terrifying nightmare.

But because they can't take the risk of putting themselves or their family members in danger by telling them a word about the Yeerks, the others have no other choice but to suffer in silence, hold the stress in, even though I know they'd love nothing more than to just let it all pour out in a cleansing rush. And unless they're complete dunderheads, their own parents have to sense that there's _something_ seriously bothering them, some horrid secret they just can't share, and feel sad that their own kids don't trust them enough to do it.

It makes me feel both sad for all of them, and also that much more grateful that I have Olivia for my mother figure here on Earth-who just like Sugar Queen, does a better job at it than my own mom ever did. And since she knows about the Yeerks already, there's no possible way they could ever infest or harm her, and she's firmly on our side, I can tell her freely about _anything_ that bothers me about this new war, or a hard time I just had without having to use half-truths. It's a wonderful feeling.

"_Good to hear_."

"_I can smell that you've been cooking_," I commented, changing the subject as I sniffed and Sirius walked over, claws clicking, to shove his furry face into my left hand.

"_Yep._ _I made pork with garlic sauce and jasmine rice for dinner, and chopped baked apples in caramel sauce for dessert. Hopefully it hasn't grown cold by now._"

"_Well, I guess you'll just have to warm it up again if it has,_" I replied with a grin."_After helping Sunshine out, I'm certainly eager enough for it," _I added as I made my way to the dinner table, feeling my way with my hands.

Even though Olivia had to leave for her job soon, she still spent some time with me as I ate, and got me a chilled bottle of sweet, fruity-tasting "strawberry" soda from that crazy appliance called "the fridge." I opened the cap with my metalbending, and began sipping it, relishing the flavor while we talked about stuff.

Soon though, I got down to business.

"_Olivia, there's something I need you to do for me tomorrow morning,_" I said.

"_Sure_," she said. "_Is there someplace you want to go? Or something you need?_"

"_Sort of_," I said slyly. "_I've been thinking,_" I told her, leaning back in my chair as I raised my head toward the ceiling, "_about my fight with the ape creature today, how it could've gone better, and I need you to come with me into the woods tomorrow as part of my plan for a successful rematch,_" I grinned.

The Chee was silent for a bit. Then she said, her tone pained and conflicted, "_Toph, you know I can't harm or show any violence toward a fellow creat-_"

"_I know, and you won't have to, so don't worry,_" I assured her. "_All that you'll have to do is help get the creature into a place where I can do the violence to it._"

Not for the first time, it struck me that these Chee guys would be right up Twinkletoes's alley.

"_Well, I can technically do that much for you-even if I don't like the idea of leading a living thing to its death,_" Yzark agreed reluctantly. "_But you're not going to go after this thing a second time on your own, are you?_" she asked with growing concern. "_If it gets the upper hand Toph, I literally won't be able to do a thing to stop it, except maybe try to distract it with holograms."_

"_Trust me, I won't make **that** same mistake twice_," I let her know. "_This time, I'll make sure I've got two guys who **can** fight to back me up and help me take this thing down. They just don't know it yet,_" I smugly smiled.

"_Okay, I'll sign on,_" the Chee said. "_So how will this plan of yours work_?"

She wanted to know. So, still sipping at my soda, I told her my strategy for getting the better of my would-be killer.

* * *

**Next chapter will see Toph's plan to deal with the ape creature, and deal with it her own way, be put into motion and executed.**

**And really people, quit being lazy and take the time to give me a review, containing praise or critisisim, I don't really care. I mean, I strained myself to write an amazing action sequence last chapter, and I just get a single review for my efforts? Really discouraging. **


	29. Chapter 29

**And here's the chapter where Toph has her rematch.**

* * *

Ax.

It was early next morning, in the state park that was my temporary home. I had performed the morning ritual and now was reclining in a natural depression on a hill, among thick trees, idly watching the ducks and herons in a large marsh below with my main eyes as my stalk eyes and ears scanned for anything that might indicate approaching humans.

Since Prince Jake would not be ready to conduct the search for the experimental Controller until tomorrow, I assumed that the day would be mine to do with as I wished.

I watched one of the smaller types of heron, a dark colored kind known as a green heron, suddenly hunch down and attentively stare over its bill into the shallow water at some possible quarry, neck muscles tensed for the grab.

Carefully it raised one foot out of the water, and then put it down again, taking care not to produce even a ripple. It took another cautious step forward, a second one, waited for a long moment before taking another one. Then suddenly, its head darted forward like a thrown spear, smacking into the surface.

The next moment, it was standing back up with a large tadpole held crosswise in its beak, which it quickly turned around and ate.

Out of my right stalk eye, I saw five goldfinches perched among a large clump of thistles which grew near the edge of the marsh, extracting the seeds from their heads and shelling them with their stout, powerful yet dexterous beaks.

How different in shape and function theirs were from the heron's, from the hooked, tearing beak of the hawk that was now Tobias's natural form!

And yet, they were all impressively complex variations on a seemingly simple structure, tailored by evolution and the demands of radically different diets.

While I was musing on this, the green heron suddenly seemed to become agitated, cocking its head and looking up at the sky before bursting into hurried flight with a croaking call.

I looked behind me with both my stalk eyes and saw the shadows of a pair of swooping hawks gliding over the forest floor as I heard Toph say in thought-speak, (One of Antelope Boy's new neighbors obviously doesn't like the look of us one bit.)

(No kidding. To be fair though, you'd be hauling butt too if you saw a couple of red-tailed hawks speeding in your direction,) Tobias pointed out as he descended through the canopy, flared, and landed on a bough.

(True,) Toph replied as she landed next to him, somewhat more clumsily. Due to the curious, unprecedented way her innate gender is retained between morphs, her red-tailed hawk morph was female and about a third larger than Tobias is.

To me, Tobias said, (Hey there Ax. Toph just showed up at my meadow a little while ago to rack up some more air miles with me, and we're here to see if you want to join us.)

(You feel like some flapping, Antelope Boy?) Toph asked.

(That would be wonderful,) I replied as I rose to my feet. (Thanks for offering.)

I focused on the harrier's DNA within me, and as the changes began, my blue and tan fur becoming replaced by pale gray feathers, hind legs becoming thin and scaly.

When the morph was complete, I turned into the ground breeze and opened my wings, pushing off with my legs as I flapped, and then tucking them against my belly as I rose from the forest floor. The breeze gave me lift, and I was off, flapping fiercely over the marsh to gain the necessary altitude, head thrust forward as I let my legs relax.

With the harrier's sharp hearing, I heard the sound of two sets of talons scraping against bark behind me as Tobias and Toph launched themselves back into the air. To the harrier's mind, it was great cause for alarm, and I could feel its panic. But I knew the hawks coming up alongside me were not the true thing, and I easily brought the harrier's fear under control.

Being the more experienced flyer, Tobias soon gained the lead, and then caught an updraft of warm air which propelled him at least three hundred feet in the air above us within seconds.

Toph and I followed his example, the ground rapidly falling away from us.

(Ya-ha!) I went in excitement.

(Whhoooaa!) Toph yelped. (Man, that's always _such_ an awesome rush!)

(Yep, thermals are the way to travel up here,) Tobias agreed as we turned to keep within the updraft, continuing to gain altitude as it lifted us ever upward.

It is such a fantastic, giddy, delightful feeling, flying on your own wings. Nothing compares to it.

I felt the sun's glow on my back, and listened to the sound of the wind beneath our wings.

With my sharp harrier eyes, I could see every crack in the bark of the trees below us, the way the flanks of the deer we passed over expanded and contracted each time they drew breath, the fur of the squirrels that leapt from branch to branch and descended the trunks in head-down, jerking motions.

(It all right with you guys if I pick the direction to go soaring in?) Toph asked.

(That's just fine,) Tobias said simply. (You okay with that Ax?)

(I have no objection,) I replied.

(Good, because I'm thinking I'd like to get a better look at this one area of the mountains.)

Now we were thousands of feet above the forest. From below I heard a raking sound, and turned my head to get a better look. It was a black bear, tearing open a rotting log to get at the insects inside. Ants or beetles perhaps.

(Just make sure you steer clear of her though,) Tobias said, sliding off to the right.

(Huh? What now?) Toph asked in confusion.

(Her? What do you mean Tobias?) I said, equally baffled as I switched my attention from the bear far below.

(There's a young female golden eagle a little over a mile to our right and several hundred feet above us,) Tobias replied, his tone laced with worry. (They rarely go after other birds in flight, and she's probably just scoping out a marmot colony or a covey of grouse, maybe even a wolf kill. Still, she can't be more than two years old, and even eagles often have a real tough time getting their talons on enough food when they're that young.)

(So she just might be desperate enough to take a crack at one of us, is what you're saying Hawk Boy,) Toph said, even as, like me, she partially switched her gaze to the eagle.

(Exactly. So keep an eye on her and give her space.)

It was a sobering reminder that even if our morphs had wings and were predators, we were still not invulnerable.

(Well, since the place I'm interested in is in the other direction anyway, that won't be too hard,) Toph remarked as she began to peel off to the north.

Fortunately, all the eagle did was give us a casual, briefly appraising glance with her fierce dark eyes-which my harrier ones could see so clearly-before ignoring us, returning her focus to whatever was below her as we flew on, approaching the mountains at an angle. Soon, most signs of civilization were far behind us.

As we flew on, I began to recognize certain trees, rock formations, openings in the forest I'd seen before-but only yesterday, from our search to find the new Controller that had resulted in Toph's ill-fated attack on it.

A sudden suspicion began to sprout within me.

Was Toph actually cleverly dragging us into a second attempt to destroy the Controller without our knowledge, under false pretenses?

Tobias must have felt the same way too, because then he said warily, (You know Toph, this place looks just a bit familiar. In fact, I'd say it looks an awful lot like we're headed for the same area where you found the ape creature last morning.)

(That's because well, we kind of are,) Toph said, her voice even in its tone and a bit ashamed as she suddenly began to descend in a fast glide. (Now we're going to find out just how spot on Smart Aleck's theory that the ape creature will be sticking around here after my first attack is,) she muttered as she leveled off a few dozen feet above the trees. (Olivia should be around here by now already someplace,) she added softly.

For a few suspended, frozen moments, Tobias and I could say nothing, shocked and scandalized.

(You-you mean this was all a trick you've been playing!) I cried accusingly, feeling terribly betrayed.

Tobias was equally upset. (You have some explaining to do about this Toph,) he said sternly as he stopped and circled, refusing to go any further. I did the same. (As in. Right. Now.)

There was a silent moment, during which I assumed Toph was privately calling out for the Chee in thought-speak.

Then she sighed in our heads. (Okay, I guess I'd better come clean about this beforehand. Yes, I'm _going_ to go a second round with this beast-and this time try to come out on top. Yes, I sorta tricked you guys into coming along to back me up, and I'm sorry about that,) she said remorsefully. (But this might be my only chance to do this before the weekend.)

Tobias gave a disappointed, exasperated sigh.

(It's good that you're bringing more backup along this time Toph,) he said after a while, soaring in a circle, (but why didn't you just _ask_, instead of hoodwinking Ax and I? We're a team Toph-your _friends_-and that's not cool.)

(Besides, we were meaning to find this creature and hopefully kill it tomorrow anyway,) I added. (Why do you feel so impatient to do this without the others?)

(I know that Hawk Boy,) Toph answered, her voice containing both guilt and determination. (And I'm sorry for being dishonest with both of you like this. But I _am_ going to do this.)

I knew then from her tone, the way she glanced over her hawk shoulder, that neither I nor Tobias would be able to dissuade her.

(And as for why-well, I drew first blood on this ape thing,) she went on. (Not only is it probably here in the woods because of me to begin with, but I started this...and now I've got to finish it. Just trust me on this, okay?)

In that moment, I understood her sentiments clearly. By losing her first battle with the arboreal Controller, she had been dishonored, come across as an incompetent fool when it came to fighting in morph, and now she needed to do what she had to do to regain that honor and prestige.

I then thought of Visser Three, of the maddening amount of times I'd confronted, even harmed the Yeerk filth, but always ultimately failed to kill him.

Surely, if I went out to actively search for and kill The Abomination, and Toph was present to provide needed assistance, wouldn't it be reasonable to want her to come along as well? I would've been more open-and far less duplicitous-in my methods of course, but I knew I would doubtless welcome her help if the situation arouse.

There was one last question I had for her though.

(Toph, you know you should've at least found a way to inform Prince Jake about this,) I told her disapprovingly. (Why did you not do so?)

(Partly because I kind of want to surprise him, partly because he's got enough hassle to deal with already in his normal life,) Toph altruistically replied. (Besides, if we can take this thing down today, we'll all be able to have a nice, Yeerk-free weekend,) she added chipperly. (Now, are you guys with me or not?)

I thought for only a moment before making my decision. (While you should've told Prince Jake of your intentions,) I said, (I'll help you carry out your plan to put an end to this creature. You do have a plan in mind, I assume?)I added.

(Of course Antelope Boy,) Toph laughed. (That's why Olivia's out here,) she added as we pulled away from Tobias. (You coming with us Hawk Boy?) she asked, turning to look behind her.

(I guess I don't have much of a choice,) Tobias said with dry resignation as he glided over to join us. (After what happened last time, you could use an extra hand on deck.)

(You're the best Tobias,) she said warmly.

(I try.)

(Okay Olivia,) she announced then, (if you can hear my head-talk from here, get out into the closest clearing you can and then make some sort of loud noise-but a natural one, like a fox's bark or something, I don't know.)

After that, we aimlessly circled in the air for a minute or two, staying safely above the canopy and behaving as naturally as possible while we waited for the Chee to produce the sound that would pinpoint her location.

Now and again, I heard a brief rustle of brush or crack of twigs as something moved through the trees.

Then we heard it. It was a keening, startling cry, part yelp and part wail, coming from a part of the forest about three-quarters of a mile to our left and in front of us.

It was a sound I'd come to know well from my time in the woods, the crest-raising, nerve-jangling, grating bark of a red fox. I knew however, that this time it was no fox our alert bird of prey ears were hearing.

We all immediately-but still remaining some distance from each other, and trying not to seem too hurried-turned and headed in the direction of the sound as it came again.

(We hear you Olivia,) Toph assured her, (and we're coming your way now.)

There was a medium-sized, irregularly shaped, rocky clearing ahead, about one hundred and twenty by seventy feet. Besides rocks, it also contained a mixture of herbs and small bushes, as well as one lone, scraggly, short spruce tree that I knew was actually a projected hologram from the android.

Rocking my body to spill air from my wings, I aimed for the holographic tree and went into a steep glide, throwing my legs out in front of me to bear the shock of impact. Tobias then landed on my left, and a few seconds later, Toph landed on my right.

"Hello Aximili, hello Tobias," Olivia said as the hologram switched off, revealing her true android form, looming above us. "Did Toph tell you about what your roles will be in this plan to deal with the Controller yet?"

(No,) Tobias said. (Until just a few minutes ago we didn't even know we were part of her plans to start with,) he muttered.

(Well, I'll tell you guys now that we're here though,) Toph said, already beginning to demorph. I decided to do the same.

"Okay, let's make this quick," Toph said once she and I had fully demorphed, her hair billowing in the breeze as she extended her right foot to feel for the creature's presence and uneasily listened. I displayed similar caution, scanning the edges of the clearing, listening hard with my horse-like ears, and holding my tail at the ready. "You're shielding us with your holograph-whatever, right Olivia?"

"Of course Toph," she assured her.

"Great. First of all, do you two guys have wolf morphs?" she asked hopefully.

(Yes, I do,) I replied.

(Me too, although I'm not exactly sure why that's important,) Tobias said.

"Sweet," Toph exhaled in relief. "And I'll explain just why that's important in a bit."

"First thing you guys need to know though, is that I'm going to be the one who takes this thing out once and for all-and this time I think I've got the perfect morph to do it with," she said, glancing at both me and Tobias with her foggy eyes. "But to pull this off, I need all three of you guys to get this ape creature out of the trees and down on the ground, then lead it right to me while keeping its attention on you."

(Sounds doable,) Tobias agreed. (How exactly do you want us to go about getting it interested though?)

"Well, Visser Butthole sent this thing out to go after some Andalites, right?" she asked rhetorically. "So I'm thinking the sight and sound of a whole _herd_ of Andalites running around in the woods is something that'll catch its attention in a big way-and it won't be able to resist," she grinned.

* * *

Toph Beifong.

Slowly, with a pulling, stretching sound, the cougar's impossibly long tail-my tail-grew to its full length, and I felt an itching sensation as whiskers grew from the sides of my short, blocky muzzle, my hands becoming paws. The morph was complete.

My task though, was just starting.

I rotated the cat's velvety ears, testing them and blinked once, twice, getting a feel for the morph.

The cougar had excellent hearing. Excellent eyesight too, especially when it came to detecting movement and seeing in dimmer light, picking out shapes from the background. Its color vision though, wasn't so good. Neither was its sense of smell, even though she could still smell a lot better than a person.

The cougar was initially confused about where she was. But soon she dismissed it. Her mind was a cunning, attentive one, always observing, assessing.

She wanted to stealthily prowl about, stake out a territory then find a place where prey might pass by, and lay in wait there for it. Or she would keep her eyes open for the sight or sound of possible prey, then crouch down and see how closely she could sneak up to it.

Deer were her favorite meal, but she'd eat anything she could catch, really. Turkeys, raccoons, rabbits, foxes, squirrels, hawks, geese, even a bobcat or brawny elk. She was the master huntress, the queen of the forest's predators, a ghostly assassin who stood alone.

I wanted to do the same things, and already had both a place and a victim in mind.

Clamping down on the cougar's instincts, I broke into a quick, but quiet trot through the gloom of the forest, body held low and ears pinned back so as not to give my presence away. The ape creature could be anywhere.

I felt so graceful, so sure and powerful. The cougar weighed little more than I did, but oh man, was she so much stronger, a lean, sleek mass of coiled power and agility. It would work just fine for this task, oh yes.

I knew that while I was trying to stay concealed as best I could as I headed toward the place we'd picked for the ambush, Hawk Boy, Ax, and Olivia were doing the exact opposite.

Their part of the plan was to pretend to be blissfully running around together as a trio of Andalites, Ax as himself, Tobias as a morph, and Olivia portraying one with her crazy emitter technology.

They'd be far enough apart to tempt the ape creature-if it was actually still _around_-into attacking one of them, but still close enough for Hawk Boy and Ax to warn and help each other if or when it came flying out of the trees.

I hated, almost felt sick, that I'd lied to them like that, dragged them into my plan without their permission, and I hoped it wouldn't damage our trust. And there was also a real risk that one of them could get hurt baiting the creature, or worse.

But this was something I had to do. I had to prove to everyone, and most of all myself, that I could kick butt just as well in a morph as I could with my earthbending.

After several minutes, I began to see the sunlight shining more strongly through the trunks of the trees, and saw tall, scraggly tan and green grass between the gaps. It was the small meadow Tobias had spotted while searching for just the right spot, the one we'd agreed on. The one where, if everything worked out in our favor, the ape creature would die.

The meadow wasn't a large one. Shaped kind of like a skinny oval, I'd guess it was about fifty paces long by eleven paces wide, full of grass and low-growing shrubs.

Right down the length of it ran a wide animal trail, which Hawk Boy thought had been made by elk.

And my cougar nose confirmed it. The faint smell of elk, a true prize, a grand feast if she could get her claws on one, excited the cougar's mind greatly.

Hunching down into a crouch, shoulders arching, I crept up to the edge of the small meadow, keeping to the shadows as I slowly placed one padded paw in front of the other, trying to keep as quiet and concealed as a snake. Every so often, I took a moment to scan the branches above me, listen for the sounds of claws on bark.

After last time, I was probably just a bit paranoid, even though I knew that even if the ape creature _was_ nearby and saw me, it wouldn't be able to tell me from any other cougar.

There was a large bush, growing a few feet away from the edge of the forest, with lots of little seedlings and tall blades of grass growing around it. Perfect cover, both my mind and the cougar's agreed.

I slunk over to the bush and slipped inside, feeling the twigs scrape and brush my back as I did. Okay, I was pretty well concealed now. Now which way should I be facing, left, or right?

The plan was that if the ape creature came after one of the other three, they would all immediately head for this meadow with the creature hard on their heels. And if possible, then they should run through the meadow the same way as the breeze, so it wouldn't be as likely to smell me.

After hesitating for a bit, I decided I'd face upwind, toward the right side. Leaves crunched and twigs lightly rasped through my fur as I carefully shifted my cougar body into position, pressing my belly against the ground. Then I could only wait, and hope the trickery, the preparation, wouldn't be for nothing.

If it turned out Smart Aleck's guess had been wrong, and the Controller had actually split, or was being held in the Yeerk Pool right now while its Yeerk fed, well, that would sure make me look awfully silly and be a massive waste of our time.

Patient, motionless, feeling the cougar's calm anticipation, I kept my eyes and ears focused on the southern edge of the clearing as the minutes passed by.

And then...

The sound of frantic galloping! The beast was around here after all, and now the others were on the run from it! Yes!

Yeah, I understand it's weird to be excited over something like that.

But then my enthusiasm took a hit when I realized they were coming from the north. The wrong direction!

What if it smelt me before I could attack? I didn't have time to get into a new position! Now I'd have to attack it from an awkward angle!

_No time for that Toph,_ I told myself. _You just have to get ready and go for it._

(Get ready Toph!) I heard Hawk Boy say in my head as the pounding of hooves, the sound of labored breaths, got closer. (Jeez, this thing is on our tails and going through the branches like you can't believe!)

(It is so fast!) Ax agreed.

I had just enough time to start turning in the other direction, crinkling leaves, before Ax and Tobias, running in single file, charged into the clearing like racehorses with Olivia running between them, a bizarre blue parade of Andalites, stalk eyes and tail blades held high as they ran flat-out.

As I tensed the cougar's muscles to spring, I heard something hurtle down to the ground seconds later and begin tearing down the trail after them. I didn't need to be told what it was.

The instant Tobias, who was in the rear and deliberately lagging behind, approached the bush, I broke from cover, bounding over the grass in astonishing leaps, easily covering four paces at a time with each jump as the landscape flew by me.

As the onrushing ape creature expanded in my sight, I saw it come to a stop as it also saw me, sunken eyes widening as its huge ears flicked upright.

It turned to run. But I was faster.

At the last instant, it tried to face me and fight back. Too late.

In just a few seconds, even if it'd come from a direction I hadn't been expecting, I was on it, crashing into its back and hurling it to the ground as I pinned its upper pair of arms to its sides with my forelegs, claws sinking into its tough skin.

I bit down hard, high on its right shoulder and near the base of the neck where there was a seam between the leathery plates. I tasted its blood, welling into my mouth as it screeched in pain, exciting the cougar all the more.

"Yyyaaaaggghhhh!"

It heaved against the ground with its free pair of arms, trying to either throw me off or go into a roll.

But I just shoved my weight against it in response, pinning it again.

(Ah-ah. You're not getting away that easily Yeerk,) I snarled as I twisted, yanked at its neck with the cougar's stout jaws to do more damage.

I then felt pain, pain in my flanks as the beast ineffectually reached up behind it with its free pair of hands and began to scrabble at me with its taloned fingers, raking at the air and sometimes scratching out fur or skin.

But I made myself ignore it, biting even harder and shaking my head, yanking at the tendons and blood vessels, tasting the salty fluid on my tongue. Both I and the cat were perfectly happy to take some pain if it finally meant seeing this thing dead.

This was exhilarating. This was so _satisfying_. This was primal. This time, I wasn't hurting or killing an opponent at a distance with earthbending, but getting right in its face, using nothing but teeth and brute power to whip their butt, doing it honestly.

Even though the cougar's eyes were mostly shut and her ears laid back to protect them, I still heard Ax come running over from the left, and Hawk Boy from the right, both in wolf morph, panting.

I then heard the ape creature give another desperate squeal of pain as they each crunched down onto one of its free arms near the wrist and yanked in opposite directions, jerking and ripping, feet braced.

I decided it would be safe for me now to shift my grip to its throat. So I did. Its struggles underneath me became more frenzied-and soon, then weaker. Finally, it twitched a few times, and then lay still as I released my jaws, panting from the effort.

(Way to go Toph,) Tobias congratulated me.

(You did very well,) Antelope Boy agreed.

(Thanks,) I said, pleased, as I backed away. (And once more, I prove myself to be awesome. Don't forget the last part of this plan though.)

(We haven't,) Tobias said, laughing. (Ax-man, you can do the honors.)

And with that, I broke into a wild run, racing for the trees, then among them, as Ax chased me, growling, while Tobias continued to tear at the dead ape-creature, shaking it. It was all part of covering our tracks of course, making it seem like I'd been just some random cougar that had killed the beast, and then been promptly chased off by a couple of wolves. I even briefly stopped to take a swing at Antelope Boy, hissing as he lunged at me, to make it that much more realistic.

I selected a nice big pine tree and shot up into it with one bound, pulling and pushing my way up the trunk with the claws on my feet before making my way out onto a branch and looking down as Ax leapt at the trunk a few times, scratching the bark with his wolf claws, before turning away to rejoin Hawk Boy.

(And that's a wrap,) I smugly told myself. (Okay guys, I think that's good enough now.)

Standing there in the tree's upper branches, the cougar's heart pumping, looking down at where Ax and Tobias were trotting away from the fallen ape creature, both my mind and the cat's filled with accomplishment and pride at our success-I just felt great, on top of the world.

I'd proven myself as an equal, polished my reputation, shown that Controller who was boss around here, and the others that I was just as capable and deadly of a fighter in morph as I was with my earthbending.

Today, I dominated. I ruled.

And I cut loose with the cougar's penetrating scream, ringing through the sky.

I then carefully climbed down from the tree and rejoined the others.

There's not much to report after that.

Ax morphed the harrier again. Tobias demorphed. I demorphed as well, and then morphed the raven, while Yzark headed for home with the astonishing speed all Chee are capable of.

I was headed for her place too, looking forward to a well-earned rest and good lunch.

Once we'd taken to the air, and the mountain peaks were receding behind us, I noticed a big, dark brown bird, bigger even than my raven out of the corner of my eye, drifting over to above the silver of meadow and then beginning to descend in a gradual spiral toward the trees.

It was the young golden eagle we'd seen earlier, apparently interested in having some lunch of her own-and one that was literally out of this world.


	30. Chapter 30

**And here's another chapter for your reading pleasure. While this one may not have as much action as the last one, a lot of interesting things still happen in this one. So enjoy.**

* * *

_Jake_.

"Jake, I'm sure she had her reasons," Cassie said, her brown eyes looking up at mine as we walked down the sidewalk toward Olivia's, staying on my right. "Maybe she didn't go about it the right way, but she did get rid of that ape creature in the end."

"I know, and I don't have a problem with _that_," I replied, my voice containing the smallest edge of a growl. "But I do have an issue with the fact that she basically_ lied_ to Ax Cassie-and you too Tobias," I added, shooting a glance at Tobias, walking along in his human morph. "She lied to drag them into her little escapade without even having the decency to ask, or much less let me, Marco, or one of the others know what she was up to. _Again_."

I was practically bristling with anger, I was so steamed.

Here I'd told her to _wait_, wait until tomorrow when we could all go search for the ape creature together. But she'd decided, on a whim, to blow my instructions off to search out the creature a second time-even though she _knew_ this time that she wasn't supposed to!-and use trickery to sucker Tobias and Ax into helping her.

"Yeah, pulling that move on Ax and I wasn't all that cool," Tobias agreed. "I would've helped her anyway if she'd just been honest."

"You know, you could've just flat out refused to let her drag you into it at all," I said meaningfully, raising my eyebrow as I shot him a glance.

"I know Jake, but then she probably would've gone to face down the creature anyhow, and it's not like I could just grab her by the wings and haul her back to my meadow," he pointed out. "And besides...well, not to seem sappy, but she's become sorta like a little sister to me now," he added more softly, shifting his gaze to the sidewalk. "If she'd gotten killed because I wasn't there to back her up...the guilt would just tear me up inside, you know."

"That's true," I acknowledged. "And I guess I can't be too ticked at someone who's got a driven attitude like that-even if she _was_ still reckless and blatantly disobeyed my orders. Cassie, we getting close to Carver Drive yet?"

After pausing for a moment to look ahead, she nodded, saying "The intersection for it and Jackson Street is just ahead."

And indeed, I could see the road sign coming up too.

As we turned onto the street, I turned to my right, the others following.

Just as Tobias had said, I spotted the big, fenced-in yard for the dogs pretty quickly, with at least two dogs out on the lawn that I could see as we came closer, a pit bull and a black Scottish terrier playing together.

The android's SUV was parked in the driveway. So Toph was probably here, proclaiming how awesome she was to the Chee or whatever. Good.

I was ready and determined to lay down the law, call her out onto the carpet for blowing off the original plan a second time now. But now that the gate to the yard was coming into sight, I began to feel a secret, uncertain trepidation brewing in my belly as it hit me.

Gosh help me, I was about to have words with and try to discipline a teenage girl who not only shared my ability to turn into deadly animals at will-which was intimidating enough-but could toss solid stone around and fashion metal into nasty weapons with only her mind! And even better, she had an attitude like Rachel's to handle too.

Imagine, your little sibling or your child is angry, misbehaving, and it's your job to make them stop and then give them the parental lecture. And now imagine this kid's got a great big butcher knife or a .357 revolver in their little hands. That's a pretty terrifying prospect to deal with, right?

Yet even that would be a cakewalk compared to what I was about to do, who I was about to antagonize.

Thoughts flashed through my head of stone countertops, of stone cutting boards, of knives and lamps and nails and screws, maybe even glass breaking up, being flung through the air and piercing my flesh as Toph threw an indignant tantrum the likes of which our world had never seen.

Cassie must've picked up on my ever-so-slight apprehension, for I heard her say, "Try not to worry Jake. Toph has a good relationship with me, so if she gets mad enough to think about bending, I'm sure I can calm her down before the metal flies. Tobias too," she added as she glanced at him tellingly.

"That's what I'm counting on," I nodded. "That you two can help keep her calm," I said as I walked up to the yard gate and pressed the button for the doorbell. "And hopefully me too," I grumbled.

"Well Jake, we'll try," Tobias said.

To be an effective leader, a wise leader, it's crucial to pay attention to the relationships among your followers, notice who likes and hangs out with who, and on the flip side, which people don't really get along-and then be willing to exploit those relationships to your own ends if needed.

_Anyway, here we go, _I thought as I heard the bell ring in the house.

Dogs barked in excitement as I heard Olivia cry, "Coming!"

Footsteps, and then the door opened as the Chee appeared.

"Hello Jake. Hello Cassie. Hello Tobias," she said politely. "You here to see Toph?" she ventured.

She seemed happy enough to see us-yet I thought I could also see her holographic "face" fall slightly. She knew why we were here. To rebuke her foster daughter.

"You'd better believe we are," I said coolly, trying to stay composed.

She sighed. "Well, come in, the dogs'll be okay. Zhenzhu, Jake and Cassie are here to see you, along with Tobias!" she called over her shoulder, into the house.

An irritated sigh. "All right, I'm coming," I heard her reply.

I tried not to stomp up to the house as I opened the gate and we walked into the yard, Cassie shutting the latch behind us.

Olivia uneasily backed away and to the left as I came up to the door. Behind her in the entryway appeared Toph, wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a lime green tank top, her hair in a thick, five-strand braid as she ate Cheez-it crackers from a box she held, a big black German shepherd mix panting at her side.

"Hi Zhenzhu. How's it going?" I said smoothly, using her false name for anyone who might be close enough to hear.

As we stepped inside, she gave a knowing sigh before saying, "Let me guess, you're here to chew me out for attacking the ape creature a second time without telling you, right?"

"You're darn right I am," I said icily, glaring into her sightless eyes.

"Um, I think I'm going to take Simon and Red out for a walk now," Olivia said in a hurried, insecure voice, slipping aside. "SIMON! RED! Would you babies like to go out for a walk?" she shouted out into the yard with fake cheeriness as she grabbed two leashes from a shelf in the entryway closet. I knew it was all a pretense to get out of there before the angry words began flying.

It's funny, about the Chee.

Although they can't so much as even slap or push another living creature, some, like Erek or Mr. King, still don't seem to have a problem attending battles with us, witnessing the anger and blood and violence, even if reluctantly.

But I've also noticed there are other Chee who, if there's even the_ suggestion_ that conflict might occur in the air, will become deeply uneasy and shrink away, keep their distance, kind of like Rex in Toy Story. Clearly, Olivia was one of the latter.

Still, when the pit bull and the Scottish terrier came running up to her and she clipped the leashes to their collars, she became hesitant, looking from me to Toph with an uncertain, almost pleading expression of concern as she shifted her weight from foot to foot. She didn't like the idea of leaving her foster daughter alone for the tongue-lashing I was going to give her.

In spite of being blind and standing on linoleum, Toph must've somehow either heard or otherwise sensed the droid's tension and concern, for then she rolled her eyes and droned, "Olivia, just go. I can handle myself just fine. Heck, to me there's nothing better than having my back against the wall," she added half-flippantly.

The Chee nodded, giving an accepting sigh. "If you say so."

Before she shut the door behind her, she gave me a questioning look, saying, "Jake..." letting it hang.

"I won't be any harder on her than she chooses to make it," I promised stonily, shooting a glance back at Toph, who sightlessly glared back in defiance.

"And he has the two of us to act as refs," Tobias added, nodding his head at Cassie.

Satisfied, Olivia nodded slowly, telling Toph, "Good luck," before the door swung shut with a click.

A deadly, tense stillness seemed to settle over the house then.

_Remember, don't do anything you'll regret with her Jake_, I reminded myself.

"We are going into the living room," I announced coolly, glowering, "and we are going to sit down and have a long talk about this. Now," I added, my voice clipped.

I've been a shark before, felt its grim mind, and trust me, if a shark could talk...well, it would probably sound like my voice did then.

I sat down on the center pad of the couch, with Cassie on my right and Toph in an armchair across from me, placing the box of crackers to her left on the wooden coffee table which separated us. Tobias carefully and a bit awkwardly took a seat in another armchair, on my left, shooting glances now and again at a wall-mounted clock. The black German shepherd mix warily followed us in and lay down at Toph's feet, watching me intently, aware that something was going down here, but not entirely sure what it was.

Noticing his expression, I told Cassie, "Keep an eye on that dog and grab him if he tries something, okay Cassie?"

"I will Jake," she promised.

I felt like a judge, running my hand through my hair as I gave a frustrated, disappointed sigh.

"Pretty damn slick," I told Toph at last in my measured voice. "All I can say Toph, is that you'd better start coming up with some good answers about just why you decided to run off and attack that dangerous ape creature today without even having the decency to tell me not just once, but _a second time_, and even better, **lie** to _both_ Tobias here and Ax so you could drag them into your scheme as well," I said, close to shouting with frustration.

"Hey, I'm sorry now that I tricked Antelope Boy and Tobias into going with me," Toph replied. "I really am, and maybe there was a better way I should've gone about it, I don't know. But it was something I had to do on my own-killing the ape creature, I mean. And I did it," she added hotly, "so I don't know why you're in such a tizzy, Boss Boy! You should be thanking me!"

"Look, I'm not complaining about that," I said, putting my hands up in the air. "And for what it's worth, great job, okay?"

"Than-" she began to hesitantly smile.

"I'm not finished," I snapped. "You're still in mighty damn deep, so don't you get smug with me just yet."

"You know, what's your deal?" she angrily barked, thrusting her head forward like an angry crow. "Tobias and Ax didn't _have_ to come with me. They could've just left me and Olivia to do it on our own, at any time they wanted. Besides, I did it better, smarter, this second round, and no one got hurt, did they?"

"That's not the point!" I shot back, starting to get to my feet, pressing my lips together. "The point is that that thing nearly killed you once already Toph! The point is that we're all supposed to be part of a _team_, and we do NOT just go off and do insanely dangerous stuff whenever we get it into our hea-"

I was brought back to my senses when the black dog also leapt to its feet then, growling and fiercely barking, ink-black hackles erect as his body tensed, ready to protect Toph from the loud, aggressive stranger. He looked like a black wolf or a hellhound at that moment, showing teeth like ivory spikes. It was a terrifying sight, to say the least.

That concentrated my seething mind and made it do a 180 mighty quickly, I can tell you.

"Um, nice doggie," I told him sweetly and tensing my shoulder muscles, ready to shove or punch the dog as I felt the hair rise on my nape and Cassie sprung up herself, preparing to grab the dog's collar if he lunged.

"Sirius, cool it," Toph commanded, blindly leaning forward and placing her hand on the dog's shoulders, reassuring and stroking him even as she continued to meet my gaze with her misty green eyes. "Jake and I are all right, boy. That's a good boy."

Slowly, the fire went out of Sirius's eyes, and he calmed down, sinking back to the carpet in a seated position, still glaring at me distrustfully. Distrust. That was an emotion I knew all about right now.

I took several deep breaths, trying to get my heart out of my mouth and back under my breastbone again. Trust me, even if you can change into an honest-to-God tiger or wolf or Hork-Bajir, it sure doesn't make the sight of a ticked-off, protective big dog that's like a millisecond away from coming at you any less scary.

"Well, that sure escalated quickly," Tobias shakily commented.

"No kidding," Cassie added, exhaling, keeping her eyes on Sirius as she sat back down. "It's all right Sirius. It's all okay. We're friends with your girl," she assured him cheerily, relaxing him even more.

"You should really think about bringing him into another room-or outside," I told Toph, nodding towards the door.

"Nah Boss Boy, I like him right where he is," she replied, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

Great, on top of her insubordination, she was apparently taking pleasure in watching me squirm too. Although 'watching' wouldn't exactly be the best choice of word.

"Shades of Jabba the Hutt," Tobias muttered, which made her give him a brief, confused look, eyebrows furrowed before she dismissed it. Yeah, she was going to be a headstrong one.

"Well, whatever. Just keep him under control. Anyway, it's like this Toph," I went on, working on calming myself. "As I was just saying, we're all supposed to be part of a team, and you're basically our most valuable player-especially when it comes to fighting."

"Plus, you're one of our friends Toph, and we care about you and your safety," Cassie added. "It would just be horrible if something bad happened to you-like what almost happened the first time you attacked the ape creature on your own. You understand that I hope."

"Especially over some reckless risk you didn't need to take," I added, a bit firmly.

"I do Sunshine," Toph replied, her expression softening slightly. "And I appreciate that you guys care about me and want me to be safe."

Squaring her shoulders, she changed tack then, saying, "But guys, look at me. I've already helped win a war that lasted for a hundred years, discovered metalbending, live pretty much on my own, and run my own metalbending academy-and all at the age of fourteen, Boss Boy. Now do those sound like things that a girl who can't take care of herself in a fight could get done?" she challenged.

"Toph, we don't think that about you for a moment," Cassie told her.

"Absolutely not," I replied in agreement. "That's some seriously incredible, amazing stuff you've gotten done back on your own world Toph, and like Cassie says, we don't doubt your skills for a second or that you're awesome in combat. But I am saying that the Yeerks are always full of nasty surprises, and there's too much at stake to be pulling impulsive stunts with them."

"More importantly though, there's the trust issue," I added, glowering again. "We'd like to believe that we can trust you Toph, and until now, we have. But now, after you've suckered two members of our team into fighting with you, deliberately looked for and picked a fight with that Controller two times now, I have to wonder. There's no trust when you defy orders and go off on your own. If I'm truly like your 'boss,' then I have a right to know what you're up to."

I could see that that hit home, in a big way as she cringed.

"Well, I'm sorry. And at least I made sure I had more backup with me this time, didn't I?" Toph remarked. "And did you ever consider that maybe I didn't want to dump even more pressure on your shoulders during the middle of the school day? You'll certainly have that much less for the weekend tomorrow now that it's dead," she added.

"Thanks for the favor," I grudgingly acknowledged. "And it's great that you learned some things from the first clash you had with that Controller. But why couldn't you have waited until tomorrow to take it on?" I asked in frustration as Sirius's ears ominously pricked. "Or, if you were _that_ desperate to kill it, at_ least_ this evening when Cassie and I could've maybe come to help you out?"

"We would've even gladly let you strike the fatal blow yourself you know," Tobias added.

That gave her pause.

"Really?" she asked, 'glancing' in his direction. "You really would've? I mean, I was worried one of you guys might get there first or get in my way if we actually fought it tomorrow..." she trailed off.

I got the message, or at least thought I did.

"Yeah. Look Toph," I sighed, leaning back on the sofa, "if your culture is anything like some of the ones that mirror it here on Earth-like China or Korea-then I totally _get _that honor and not losing face is important to you, and that you had to regain it after that beast beat you the first time. Ax is the exact same way."

At that Toph laughed, throwing her head back.

There's something strange, about the sound of her laughter. On the surface, it sounds like any normal laugh that you'd hear coming from Cassie or just any other teenage girl for that matter, high and feminine. But if you pay attention, or have heard her laugh enough times, you start to notice there's something of an unnatural quality to it like you've never heard before, a difference in its cadence and pitch. I can't really explain or describe it, and I'm positive it has nothing to do with her "Chinese" accent. All I can say is that it's a subtle thing, but it's there if you're alert to it. It's definitely a bit eerie.

"Oh Boss Boy, if you think _I'm_ obsessed with the idea of honor, that ain't nothing compared to how Zuko is-or at least how he was until he switched to our side."

"Who's Zuko?" I asked, puzzled.

"Oh, just a firebender who happens to be the former crown prince and now ruler of the Fire Nation," she replied, lips twisting up into a smile. "Also known as Sparky and Hothead."

"I can fill you in about him later Jake," Cassie said.

"Yeah, telling you everything about him and his messed-up life would take a bit," Toph agreed as she dug in her left ear. "Anyway, yes, losing to that ape creature the first time sorta got to me. Yes, I understand that sometimes things don't always go your way in a fight-but that doesn't mean I have to like being beaten," she glowered.

Now it was my turn to laugh. "You and Rachel sure think a lot alike, you know that?"

She briefly showed her teeth in amusement.

Cassie was watching Toph, in that thoughtful, appraising way of hers. "That's not the whole story though. It's wasn't just about being humiliated and having to do what you felt you had to do to polish your reputation and get even. It was about proving yourself to everyone, wasn't it? You most of all," she added. "Showing us that you could fight and take down enemies just as well in morph as you could with your bending."

Her foggy green eyes widened for a moment in surprise before Toph replied, her voice filled with admiration, "You're awfully perceptive, aren't you Sunshine? But yeah, that was pretty much exactly what I was thinking," she admitted.

"That occurred to me too," Tobias nodded.

"Well, if you were looking to impress us Toph, taking out that experimental Controller was hardly a bad way to get started," I admitted, praising her. "It's certainly not a bad thing either that now we have our weekend free to actually do normal, safe stuff-thanks to you. So basically, good going," I finished.

"Glad to hear that, Jake," she said, clearly pleased.

"Still," I went on, my voice turning serious again, "there were better ways to go about that. Believe it or not, I really don't like to have to seem like a jerk or chew you out Toph-or anyone else on our team for that matter. So don't take risks or ignore me like that again if you can help it, okay?"

She sighed. "All right Boss Boy. But..." she trailed off.

"But what?" Cassie gently prodded.

"Well, it's just that-Aang says that there's a saying his people, the Air Nomads, had. What was it?" she said out loud, rotating her useless eyes up toward the ceiling as she squeezing her lips together in contemplation. "Oh yeah, now I remember," she said after a few seconds. "There is only one summit on a mountain, but many different paths can be used to reach it,'" she quoted. "At least, that's how I think it goes."

"Yes, but it's important that everyone climbing the mountain should know what everyone else is doing and where they are so they can help each other if something goes terribly wrong," I replied.

"That's true," she admitted.

"Toph, you _never_ have to worry about telling one of us if you're going to do something major...or asking for our help if you think you could use it," Cassie assured her.

"We're always willing to back you up in a fight," Tobias added. "Or, if the situation calls for it, back off a bit too."

"And even if finding time is an issue, we can always give you good advice and our opinions at least before you go in," I chimed in.

"Well. That's great to know guys. Thanks," she smiled.

Then she stood up, and made a circuit of the coffee table, giving all of us a good-natured punch to the shoulder as she grinned.

We stayed for a bit after that was settled. Tobias briefly went into the bathroom to demorph, and then morphed human again before coming back out.

I worked on convincing Sirius that I wasn't that bad of a guy after all, while Cassie got Toph a glass, which the blind girl then filled with cold water from the kitchen by shifting the handle and raising it with her ability to 'metalbend' before drinking from it.

It was both fascinating, yet bizarre, watching the metal handle being moved only by the force of her will like that.

Cassie then obliged Toph's request to make her a bowl of cinnamon spice oatmeal, emptying two packets into a bowl, boiling the water in the microwave before pouring it into the bowl as well, and finally adding some milk to cool the glop off and putting in a spoon.

As Toph ate, I heard her ask Cassie, "You know Sunshine, now that the ape creature's dead, I'm thinking about having a talk later on with Mindy and her brothers on the telepho-whatever this evening, and seeing if they can come over to your place sometime either tomorrow or the day after that for the horse riding. That still okay with you?"

"That's fine," Cassie said. "Sunday would be the best time for me personally though. If it can work out for them too, just have Olivia call my parents to let them know, okay?"

"Sure thing Cassie."

Toph that asked Cassie and I about how school had gone for us today, and we made some small talk about that, explaining things to her about our educational system as needed for her benefit.

We left Olivia's place about twenty minutes later, just a few minutes after the droid returned from walking Red and Simon, and I'm happy to say that Toph and I more or less parted on good terms.

I left relieved that it had gone so well, reassured that we'd mended the fence so to speak, and that both I and Tobias had also repaired any damaged sense of trust her actions that morning may have caused. I'd also felt we'd all come to understand each other that much better, and that hopefully Toph now felt more secure and aware about her place on the team.

Best of all, thank Jesus, it hadn't escalated into full-on, physical violence-like it eventually had between me and David so long ago on the roof of that shopping mall.

For there's one thing I can say with grim certainty about Toph Beifong.

Leader of the Animorphs I may be-but I still don't _ever_ want to have to fight her. Ever.

* * *

_Toph Beifong._

Carefully, I lay down on my back, flicked my braid out of the way, and turned my head to the side, resting it on my arm as I sighed in pleasure at the feel of the dirt and the fire's warmth.

It was wonderful to finally be able to come back to my cave in the ravine, now that the crazy four-armed ape Controller was good and dead at my cougar morph's teeth.

Olivia's place was a nice house, sure. But as far as I was concerned, this quiet, sheltered gap in the rock was truly home.

I was still on a rush from having pretty much killed the beast on my own. To celebrate, the Chee had cooked a steak for me to enjoy, with jasmine rice and peapods as side dishes, with some sort of awesome candy called 'chocolate kisses' for dessert.

Turns out, they had nothing to do with kissing and were actually like small pyramids of solid chocolate, the best food in the world, covered in crinkly foil. Nothing on this world is what it seems around here, it seems sometimes.

After dessert, since it just seemed like the right time for it, I decided to take the time to make up and, with only Yzark and the dogs to hear, sing another traditional victory song about how awesome I was for having killed that annoying Controller at last in "Mandarin."

Then I asked her if she could call up the Thongchais on the voice-moving machine so I could see if they'd like to learn how to ride some horses at Sunshine's place the day after tomorrow.

She connected me with Nimnuan, who in turn went and got Mindy to talk to me. Much to my delight, Mindy said that yeah, she and Daniel would love to spend time doing that with me-and in her case pretty enthusiastically. Obviously, Cassie had known what she was talking about when she suspected that Mindy was into horses.

Once we'd made arrangements, she 'hung up,' and shortly after that I decided to leave Olivia's to spend some quality time getting to know my cave again, choosing to walk back on my own two feet instead of morphing this time. It was already dark by then-I could tell by the cooler temperature of the air-but that of course, didn't bother me one bit.

All in all, I felt pretty great.

Yeah, Boss Boy had chewed me out a little after finding out, but he'd also given me kudos for killing the ape creature and thanked me for taking that much more of a load off his shoulders.

I'd kicked ass with just my claws and jaws in morph, formed and successfully carried out a plan on my own, and hopefully given Visser Butthole and his slug buddies something to think about next time they felt like sending one of those things out into the woods.

And now I had not just an open weekend, but another fun time with my non-Animorph friends to look forward too, get to spend time with them and learn to ride a horse! Was that ever going to be fun!

With those happy thoughts in my head, I shut my eyes and fell asleep.

I don't know how long I slept before he showed up for a second time, or even if I managed to sleep at all.

All I know is that through my hands and feet, seeping through every bit of my being, I felt his quiet, wise power and presence radiating to me through the floor of the cave.

At first, I was confused, taken aback at feeling such an enormous amount of energy as my head snapped up and I slapped the palms of my hands against the ground to get a better picture of just who was in here with me, blinking as I tried to clear the fuzz out of my head.

Then I remembered, and knew.

"It's you," I breathed out as I sat up, heart beating faster. "The Ellimist."

A great, grandfatherly laugh filled my ears.

"Yes Toph, it is me," he replied.

"If you're here to send me back home," I managed to say at last, standing up as I brushed my front off, "you're kinda rushing that a bit, since so far Rach-"

I felt him smile then.

"No Toph," he smoothly replied, "I've come not to send you back, but simply to tell you well done...among other things."

"Well thanks," I said, giving a thin smile of my own before spitting to my right. "Glad you noticed my awesome job with kicking the ape creature's butt."

"It was an impressive display of forethought, determination, and willingness to seize chances when they come."

"Well, I don't know about that first one when I decided to attack it in pitbull morph, Ellimist guy," I shrugged, a little sheepishly.

"But you survived the fight. You learned from it, discovered more about the creature's abilities and strengths as well as your own, how to engage it in a wiser way, and took all that into account for the next time you meant to face it. And this time you won," he said approvingly.

"Yeah, I sure did," I grinned gleefully, pleased by his praise. "And a big part of it was just choosing a morph that not only had the tools to kill that thing dead, but attacked the enemy the way I do when earthbending-by waiting, and listening first before coming at them," I smiled in pride.

"So many of life's successes, whether small or great, rely on picking the appropriate tools for the task at hand, don't they?" the Ellimist said rhetorically, knowingly.

"That's for sure," I agreed. "Like Snoozles' dad would say, you don't go after a buffalo-yak with only a wooden club, or try to kill southern hares with a big heavy boulder-unless you're lucky enough to be an earthbender of course," I smirked, folding my arms.

"I sense your sentiment must indicate that you mean to add even more morphs to the number of ones that you already have."

"Probably," I shrugged. "In fact, I'm thinking about maybe asking Sunshine, either tomorrow or the day after that, if she can help get me into that Gardens place sometime to acquire at least some of the animals there. The big cats and dangerous snakes seem like they'd be pretty awesome. The apes and monkeys too."

Then a thought came to me.

"Wait a minute," I said expectantly, eagerness growing. "You're here to take me to the Gardens so I can acquire all the animals I want, aren't you?"

The Ellimist laughed. "A good guess, Miss Beifong, but incorrect. You're right in that I've come to bring you to a zoo to gain more morphs-but not one that you'll find on this world."

That threw me for a bit of a loop. What was he talking about?

Puzzled, I felt my eyebrows scrunch together, thinking.

"Hold up. You mean an Andalite type of zoo?" I asked.

"No, not Andalite," he responded coaxingly, slyly. "It's one far closer to home. You just might even know someone who gave it a major makeover during the past several years."

I frowned. Suddenly it hit me, and I laughed.

"Ba Sing Se Zoo, right?" I answered. "You're offering to bring me on a little side trip to Ba Sing Se Zoo, aren't you, probably at night when no one's around to notice what I'm doing."

"Exactly," the Ellimist replied. He seemed pleased that I'd figured it out. "I know that Aximili and his nephew have given you accounts of past battles they've taken part in-and that many of them involved the appearance of Visser Three in formidable morphs of his own."

"Yep," I nodded. "They've told me about Visser Butthole forcing his host to bend their body into all kinds of crazy creatures to fight them, ranging from things like huge yellow sea snakes to four-armed things with spikes for hands. Not that I'm really all that worried about going up against him, whatever he decides to transform into," I shrugged confidently, giving a thin smile.

"And now you have the unique chance to give the Yeerk some harsh surprises of his own when you morph in battle, transform into creatures like he's never seen."

I liked that idea. "Then do your stuff and send me to the zoo," I said eagerly.

Seconds later, I was elsewhere, in an entirely different place. My first impulse was to send out a wave of bending through my right foot, feeling the vibrations ripple out and bounce back off obstacles.

What I felt came as a shock.

I wasn't anywhere near Ba Sing Se.

I was underground, in a maze of massive tunnels and chambers.

But then I realized, I knew these tunnels-and who built them!

"Wait a minute," I said, my eyes widening in both confusion and excitement as I lightly stomped my foot. "This isn't Ba Sing Se. These are the hills near my parent's estate! These are badgermole tunnels!"

Somewhere inside my head, I felt the Ellimist speak in his weird, good-natured, soothing and wise way, like splashes of water inside my spirit.

YES TOPH. I THOUGHT THAT EVEN BEFORE I SENT YOU TO THE GREAT ZOO, YOU MIGHT ENJOY THE CHANCE TO GAIN THE POWER TO TURN INTO ONE OF YOUR OLD FRIENDS AND TEACHERS.

"Oh, you sure bet I would!" I told him excitedly, grinning from ear to ear as I sent out a stronger wave of bending down the tunnel. "In a heartbeat!"

You've gotta understand what the idea of being able to acquire and morph one of the best animals ever, a badgermole, was like for me. It was as awesome as if you had the chance to turn into your beloved dog or cat, to hear what they hear, smell what they smell, have their speed and power, and to totally, really understand them.

Even better, female badgermoles are bigger than males. Not by much, but you can definitely notice it if you look. And that meant more power for me.

I felt two chambers, fairly far down the tunnel. To my delight, the further one, built into the tunnel's left side, contained a resting badgermole. A male, if the slightly smaller size was anything to go by. As my waves of bending reached him, I felt him fidget in his nest, then curiously send out a wave of vibrations too, moving up through my legs.

After having spent so much time with the badgermoles, I've learned to tell a lot about the messages they send through vibrations, as well as the pace of their heartbeats.

So I could tell that this one was suspiciously asking _Who are you, stranger_? _You're not one of my kind._

_It's me,_ I sent back through the rock. _The blind girl who learned from you long ago._

I felt his heartbeat spike, his head lift as he stood and waddled to the mouth of his den.

_It's you!_ I felt him exclaim through another wave of deep vibrations. _Great to feel your presence again here in these tunnels! I'm coming right over to greet you._

_Don't bother,_ I transmitted back. _I'll come to you._

I sensed uncertainty, slight concern as I felt another wave of bending come down toward me.

_You sure about that?_ would've been the best translation of his message. _There's a colony of wolf-bats in the chamber between you and me, _he warned.

_I know. I felt them when I scanned for one of you guys,_ I replied, my lips twisting in distaste. _I'm the greatest earthbender in the world though, so they don't worry me._

_Be cautious,_ the badgermole warned. _I'll stay here in the meantime,_ he added as I felt him lay his huge head back down.

Carefully but confidently, I strode forward, getting closer to where the wolf-bat colony was hanging out. Yes, that was a pun.

I smelt them first of course, the odor of their pee and crap all over the floor of their roosting chamber. I knew that if I was close enough to smell them, then they could probably hear me coming, or would be able to soon.

I decided to _pull_ fragments of stone from the floor and sides of the tunnel, stretching out my arms and pulling them back to my body slowly to form a crude sort of rock armor, just in case any of the nasty creatures had a go at me.

Like the relationship between armadillo-lions and rat-jackals, badgermoles don't exactly think highly of wolf-bats, attacking and even eating them whenever they get the chance. Naturally, it's rubbed off on me as well.

Wolf-bats are gross, mean-tempered, rude animals. For one thing, while badgermoles at least have the decency to use latrines, wolf-bats just go to the bathroom wherever they want, which is just nasty. (And they reek of rotting meat.) I've also heard that they've been known to kill for fun at times too. Frankly, I wouldn't put it past them with their attitude and the way they've attacked me before.

So I liked to stone them with my bending when I was younger, especially when they least expected it.

But as I started to hear their chittering, barking cries up ahead, it occurred to me that they could be of much more use to me than target practice. I could pin one down and acquire it as well in a two-for-one deal!

I felt seven groups of the creatures hanging from the roof of the chamber with my bending, and started to think. Each of those clumps of wolf-bats, if I remembered correctly, would have a single big male and anywhere from four to seven females and their young. There were also some smaller, younger males roosting between the big groups in pairs and trios.

I'd learned from scary past experiences that unless they were seriously hungry, female wolf-bats generally just freaked out and either bailed or just randomly flew around if you disturbed a roost. The males though, whether mature or young, would attack your ass as soon as you showed up. Good thing for me that I was a skilled earthbender then.

Just like I'd anticipated, when I got too close for their comfort, the wolf-bats began this hysterical chittering and yelping, flapping their huge wings. Then they burst into flight.

The females pretty much just flew around in circles or passed over me, their wings sounding like tents or blankets flapping in a strong wind as I braced myself in a horse stance and sunk my feet into the chamber's floor, sticky with wolf-bat piss.

The males went _after_ me.

One after another, I felt their bodies smash against my stone armor, try to knock me down. I heard their fangs scrape against the fragments of rock over my shoulders, my back, my head and arms. They scrabbled and probed with the sharp, huge claws at the joints of their wings, feeling for an opening that they might be able to stab me through.

It was chilling and scary to hear, and sometimes one would bite down on one of my limbs hard enough to produce a minor bruise through my rock armor. But I knew that they couldn't manage to hurt me any more than if I'd been a giant tortoise-capybara.

I slapped them away, punched them, punched rocks out of the floor or sides at them.

Soon, most of the males decided that this earthbender was too much and too painful for them to handle-story of most of my fights, thank you-and gave up, flying off to mill around in other parts of the tunnels until I'd left.

But a few of the males, maybe three or four, kept attacking me, swooping and diving to savagely bite at me again and again.

That was just how I wanted it.

I smiled thinly, knowingly, under my armor. I waited, and listened to the sounds of their wings as they dove and wheeled.

I had to time this just right, hopefully when exactly one, and only one, of the wolf-bats would be occupied with diving at me.

I backhanded two of the three males aside as they snarled and gnawed at my armor. They jumped back and wheeled away, rising into the air.

That was the moment.

And then I did something that seemed almost suicidal, it was so crazy.

I let the stone fall away from my head and shoulders, leaving them totally unprotected as it clashed to the ground.

It was too much for a third male to resist, and I heard him, sensed him, coming fast at my vulnerable head from behind, growling lightly.

With perfect timing, I pushed the stone away from my feet. I wheeled in place. I raised my hands and flung the stone gloves at him like I was a Dai Li agent.

I heard and felt them crash against the leading edge of the wolf-bat's wings, squeezed my hands in the air so that they'd grip him tightly. Then I yanked him hard to the ground with a thud, encasing his kicking legs in stone and attaching the gloves to the floor as he screeched and bit the air, flapping his pinned wings as best he could.

I encased my head in broken rock once more for protection, then pulled out a small tablet of stone from each side of the tunnel and moved my hands toward each other, then the ground, to place one on each of his wings, further restraining him.

There was no time to gloat.

As the final wolf-bats got it into their heads that just maybe they should keep their distance from me as well and left, I braved the feeling of piss and guano against my soles and walked up to the now helpless wolf-bat, circling over to the end that didn't have teeth.

I knelt, and placed my hand on his left hip, feeling the muscles and soft fur as I focused. And like all animals, he became calm as a bit of him entered into me.

When it was over, I cut him loose.

Then I walked down the tunnel to where the badgermole was waiting at the entrance to his den.

I smiled as I heard him, felt him, sniff me in excitement, nudging me with a dry, dog-like nose, then lick the whole side of my head in greeting.

I laughed before doing the same, feeling the rough skin under my tongue.

_Nice to feel you around here again_.

_Yeah,_ I agreed fondly. _It is. I can't stay long though._

Then I reached out, and placed my right hand on his enormous muzzle, stroking it affectionately as if he was just a huge ostrich-horse. After a few moments, I shut my useless eyes, and concentrated, imagining all his power and wisdom and ferocity flowing into me.

AND SO A RELATIONSHIP COMES FULL CIRCLE,the Ellimist noted, in a voice only I could hear.

Then, without warning, he opened up reality on me again.

The next thing I knew, I was standing in a natural, grass-carpeted enclosure, with a saber toothed moose-lion intently staring at me. Then, like the wolf-bats, it came at me.

I wasn't scared. Still somewhat confused and hurt that I hadn't been able to give the badgermole a proper goodbye, maybe, but definitely _not_ scared.

I knew why I was here, and exactly what to do. And I bent the dirt right out from under that beast's legs, which fell in right up to its belly as I compressed it back again, holding him securely in place.

_One saber toothed moose-lion morph coming right up_, I grinned gleefully as I slid forward over the dirt, hoping that no guards were around to hear and cause trouble for me as my braid streamed behind.


	31. Chapter 31

**While I know you guys like battles and action, I'm going to be switching gears for this chapter and the next one to develop the Toph/Marco relationship a bit more.**

* * *

**Marco**

School had gotten out for the day, and I was making my way home from the street where the bus had dropped me off, shoulders as usual straining under the weight of a backpack that seemed to contain about twice my own body weight in textbooks and stuffed-to-the-brim-folders. (I can't tell you the number of times I've been tempted to morph gorilla, or at least chimpanzee, to make that part of the school-day grind simpler. If only.)

There's this one pale yellow house I go by on my normal after-school route, with a lavender-painted wooden fence surrounding the yard. The college-age couple that lives there have this utterly demented red chow/Chesapeake retriever mix called Sinbad. I swear, his eyes look like they want to suck out your soul whenever you look at him out in the yard.

Not that you'd have too much time to contemplate them of course. That's because instead of simply barking his head off like normal dogs do if you get too close to his turf, Sinbad tends to go in for suddenly charging the fence like a maniac, rearing and scratching the boards with his claws, savagely barking and just generally doing his best to make you wet your drawers. Sure gets my attention, I can tell you.

And right on cue, as I came by his yard, Sin**bad** leapt to his feet and rushed the fence, growling and barking what were presumably doggie threats and vows to eat out my lungs if I didn't leave fast enough.

This time though, I gave little more than a halfhearted flinch as the woman of the house opened the sliding glass porch door seconds later to yell, "Sinbad, you _quit_ that! You hear me? Bad dog!"

Part of it was because I'd learned to expect this behavior as a matter of course from Psycho Dog, and partly because I was preoccupied about other things.

It wasn't surprising. I mean, who isn't preoccupied about what they're going to do over the weekend on a Friday afternoon?

Of course, as an Animorph, I often tend to find myself preoccupied with minor thoughts and matters that not even kids like the punks who shot up Columbine deserve to have to struggle with, like say, the fate of the human race, what if I'd been trapped in morph as that giant flea, if Visser One will-or God forbid, already has!-squealed to Visser Three about our true identities, and whether I'll end up going out as a bug or a gorilla.

My current thoughts could be boiled down to: A, how we were all going out tomorrow morning to hunt down and deal with the camouflaged monkey Controller swinging around in the woods, and B, Toph.

I'd decided that since I had it bad for this earthbending chick, and she was at the very least cool with having me around, I was going to take things a step further. Trouble was, how could I pull it off without looking like an idiot or that I was too eager?

Remember that scene in The Fox and The Hound where Tod blabs to Vixey that I'm-such-an-awesome-master-at-pouncing-on-fish-so-just-watch me...and he ends up totally blowing it instead? Yeah, that was the exact thing I did NOT want to end up doing.

Also, unlike Cassie or Tobias, I'm a pretty private person when it comes to my emotions, covering them up with smart, funny remarks or gestures. Fortunately-and ironically-I have this feeling that Toph is much the same way, except she just punches people instead.

_Well, I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it_, I told myself, exhaling. Besides, we were talking about a simple offer to go on a Saturday evening date here. How hard could that be, especially with my prodigious amount of charm, wit, and good looks? Yes, I know that last part wouldn't exactly matter to a blind girl.

Our house is attached to a two-car garage, which has both its main and side doors locked when we're out for the day. The same goes for our house's front door.

Fortunately though, I knew where to get a key.

Soon after moving in with my dad and her useless ankle-biter, Nora had set up a heavy, Grecian-looking tan planter out in the yard to grow herbs in, and surrounded it with red rocks for a decorative touch. One of the red rocks though, is actually made of plastic, one of those nifty little spare key hiders you see advertised on TV or being sold at Wal-Mart sometimes.

I slipped the key out from the bottom of the fake rock, shifted it back into position, and walked up to the front door to unlock the deadbolt and another lock below, twisting it in both slots.

Naturally, with the same predictability of Hobbes leaping out at Calvin and tackling him like a striped demon as soon as he gets back from school, the moment he heard my footsteps approaching and the door being unlocked, Euclid came racing down the hallway, barking like he'd lost his mind and eager to either bite or jump on me.

"_Arr arr arr arr arr arr_!"

Remembering bitter, painful past experiences, I slipped my backpack from my shoulders and, holding it by the straps, positioned it in front of a very sensitive part of the male anatomy with my left hand before opening the door with my right.

Right on cue, Euclid bounced into the air and launched himself at me in a Superman pose, aiming for my groin. But he just harmlessly ricocheted off my backpack and dropped back to the floor. I swear he looked disappointed.

Still, he continued to jump around like Tigger on meth, bark at me, and just generally be a pain in the ass as I extracted the key, shut the door behind me, and headed to the kitchen.

"Tirate a un poso," I growled at him. It's an expression I picked up from my Uncle Rufio, basically meaning "throw yourself in a hole."

I ignored his attempts to trip me up as best I could while I got a box of cinnamon graham crackers from the cupboard, poured myself a glass of milk, and sat down to enjoy an after school snack. It might be a bit messy, but seriously, is there anything better than the taste of cookie moistened by cold milk?

Once snack time was over, I reluctantly got the leash out of the entryway closet and clipped it to Crazy Dog's collar before taking him outside for a potty break and then taking him for a quick walk around the block a couple times before I put the key back and headed back inside. Not at all for the first time, it struck me how jarringly surreal all this normal, day-in-day-out stuff was now, when compared to the Animorph part of my life.

Really, it's crazy. I mean, who _hasn't_ stood outside on the lawn with the family dog at least once a day, impatiently tapping your foot or staring off into space while you wait for the pooch to either empty their bladder or squat to do number two? And yet, next morning I was going to turn into a wolf to help my pals take down and rip apart a dangerous apelike beast from outer space that had a Yeerk slug in its skull, controlling its every move.

I headed upstairs to my room and popped in a Jamaroquai CD before hitting PLAY on the remote control, taking out my science textbook and planting myself at my desk, hoping I'd be able to read and absorb enough information about clouds and air masses and air pressure, blah blah blah, for the pop quiz I suspected Mr. Kuhl would gleefully hit us with next Monday morning. He's got to be the ugliest-looking science teacher I've ever had.

Nora came home about an hour later, greeting Euclid with simpering, excited exclamations of "There you are Euclid! Did you miss Mommy while she was gone? Well she's back now! Yay!"

I decided not to be too antisocial and wandered over to the top of the stairs to give a shout-out.

"Hey Nora," I said casually, briefly raising my hand.

"Oh, hi Marco," she replied, looking up from where she was still scratching Euclid's nape. "How was the rest of your school day outside my class?"

I shrugged. "Muddled through it okay, got yet more homework to deal with. Gym was a pain, as expected. So same old, in other words. Dad called to say when he's coming home?"

Nora nodded. "He'll be here in about half an hour. He's going to be making a stop by Kentucky Fried Chicken to get dinner."

The very thought of the red and white striped boxes got my gastric juices flowing.

"Awesome. Can't beat the Colonel."

While we often like to eat out on the patio, it had become too dark for that by the time Dad showed up with the grub. It was fall though, so what can ya do?

As we sat around the dinner table and gnawed on chicken legs, with Nora periodically stopping to tell Euclid that he had perfectly good Alpo in his bowl to eat, so quit begging, we all chit-chatted about our respective day.

I decided to go out on a limb, risk the ribbing, and tell them about the latest development in my so-called love life while Dad was complaining to Nora about how some ass-clown in a Range Rover had cut him off when he was trying to get on to the freeway exit ramp.

"Uh Dad, you know how I haven't had the best success with girls, right?"

"Yeah," he replied, glancing up at me before frowning. "Which is really sort of a shame, since you have a great wit and personali-"

"Oh, you're telling me nothing I didn't know about myself already Dad," I grinned, giving a dismissive flip of my hand. "Thanks for the recognition of my immense amounts of charm though," I added, causing both him and Nora to laugh.

"Anyhow though," I went on, corners of my mouth curving upwards in pride and pleasure, "it looks like my luck there just might be changing."

I saw my dad's eyes light up with understanding, then wry amusement, over his slightly hooked nose. My dad has a lot of Polish blood in him.

"So a romance is starting to blossom between you and some attractive senorita, I take it," he grinned.

I nodded, maybe a bit bashfully.

"Way to go bud!"

"That's great to hear Marco!" Nora said eagerly, brown eyes lighting up. "What's her name?"

"Zhenzhu Beifong," I replied, my cheeks getting a bit heated for some reason. "And yes, she's Chinese," I added automatically.

"Zhenzhu," Nora said thoughtfully. "Huh, I've never seen her name on any of the school records," she commented, forehead creasing as she frowned.

"That's cause she goes to a different school than mine," I glibly lied, hoping that Nora wouldn't bother to take the effort to check the current records of our district's other educational prison facilities later on for evidence that Toph was actually attending one of them or anything like that. "She's also two years younger than I am."

"So you would've met her around town then, I presume," Dad said.

I nodded. "Yeah, I first noticed her at the mall while Jake and I were having some waffle fries with cheese together," I 'revealed,' making a mental note to tell Toph about this so-called 'backstory' I was constructing for her later on so that we could both be consistent in how we lied to my own dad and stepmom. It made me feel like crap, having to do that. "And well, this cute, pretty Chinese girl just caught my eye," I smirked, shrugging.

My dad has a tendency to break into song sometimes whenever something reminds him of a song's lyrics, and now he randomly began singing, "Some enchanted evening/ you may see a stranger/ you may see a stranger/ across a crowded room/ And somehow you'll know/ you'll know even-"

"Dad!" I said sharply. Not only were we getting off topic, he-as much as I hate to admit it-can actually sing better than I can. It's just not fair.

"Sorry about that," he said, snapping back to the topic. "Got distracted. At any rate, she caught your eye, huh?"

"Yep," I smiled. "To make a long story short, I took a chance, moved over to her table, introduced myself, and began talking with her. We hit it off, and I even ended up sharing some of my cheese fries with her. Jake had the good grace not to mind," I added.

"Well that was very nice of you Marco," Nora smiled approvingly. "Have you seen Zhenzhu around since then?"

"Several times," I replied. "Not only have I met her again at the mall since then, I also know where she lives with her foster mother, and I've stopped by to pay her a friendly visit a few times already."

"Not to do anything _unseemly_ I hope," Dad said gravely.

"No!" I yelped indignantly, shrinking in on myself. "Geez Dad, that would never even cro-"

"I'm kidding Marco," he assured me, chuckling at my consternation as my cheeks heated and Nora gave him an irritated look. "You knew that, right?"

"Peter, quit doing things like that to him," Nora sighed halfway under her breath.

"Um, yeah. Of course," I lightly smiled, trying to recapture some dignity and hide my roasting cheeks by casually taking another sip from my can of Pepsi. He'd gotten me good that time.

"Sounds like you've truly become fond of her then, Marco," Nora commented as she took a bite of mashed potatoes.

"Yep, I have. She's from a whole other planet, this girl," I said with exaggerated dreaminess, inwardly laughing at my own private joke.

Although he couldn't have known just how literal my last statement truly was, my dad gave a quick, brief chuckle of amusement anyway. "Well, it's great to hear that now you have someone else who's important in your life besides just Jake," he said in a half-relieved tone. "Not that he's a bad kid to hang with or anything," he hastily added to placate me.

_If only you knew of the __**big**__ connection between both of them_, I thought.

"Well, anyway," I proposed, screwing up courage, "I'm seriously thinking about taking the next step with her tomorrow night. You know, the 'D word,'" I clarified, making air quotes.

"Ah, the 'D word,'" my dad reminisced happily. "I've captured women's hearts on a few of those," he said suggestively, smiling as he turned to regard Nora, who smiled back. I know it doesn't make sense, but I always feel in some way like he's dishonoring my mother's memory, cheating on her, when he does stuff like that with Nora. "But if you're saying you want one of us to take both of you out to have dinner or something, sure, I can do that. Or Nora can."

Nora nodded. "I'd be glad to. Any place in particular you want to bring her?"

I stopped to ponder that for a few minutes. A movie? Although she was blind, she could always do a partial human morph and watch it with me that way. Certainly, she could be trusted to behave a lot more appropriately in the theater than Ax had at that Star Trek one.

In the next moment though, I discarded it. Having been blind all her life until she'd gained the ability to morph, and coming from a society much less advanced than ours, a movie would probably confuse and overwhelm her more than anything else. And from there it could very well be see-you-later-Marco and no-thanks for the awful time.

A concert? No, the loudspeakers would just be pure hell on her sensitive ears, I realized. And if it was one that featured the classical, more hoighty-toighty stuff...well, I'd been there and done that, with disastrous results already. I'm a major follower of the dictum "Once bitten, twice shy," after all.

Inviting her to dinner?

_Yeah, that was the stuff,_ I decided. Simple, foolproof, generous, and just a plain fun time. And I had the perfect place in mind.

"Uh, I'm thinking I'd like to take her out to that Black Angus steak house at the mall," I said. "She's kind of a big meat-eater," I divulged, leaning forward.

My dad gave a small, wistful smile. "Your mom was the same way too. She could go through a foot-long slab of ribs in less than fifteen minutes you know-and somehow manage to stay as clean as a nun's robes."

The mention of my mom was like a sick jolt, a kick to the gut as I remembered the last time I'd seen and talked to her as Visser One's host body, looking horribly like an overcooked steak herself, or maybe more like Chucky in Child's Play after Andy gave him a makeover with that match in the fireplace.

Right on its heels came that tooth-grinding, volcanic swell of rage, filling me up once more with that savage desire to find as many Controllers as I could and do things to them that would leave even Chucky or Freddy impressed.

Maybe it was just as well then that our cordless phone rang at that moment to distract me.

My Dad reluctantly decided to be the one to get out of his chair and walk a whole ten feet to grab it from its cradle.

It turned out to be Cassie. Naturally, my stomach clenched and my ears went erect. News from a fellow Animorph was seldom good. But I kept my cool as I accepted the phone from Dad, wondering if I was going to hear from her that Toph had gotten herself and/or Bird-Boy or Ax killed in a second gung-ho attempt to kill this crazy-ass ape Controller, if Visser Three had decided to hedge his bets by sending out a few more of these things into the forest, if there was some sort of emergency/golden opportunity that translated to all of us needing to go out and kill this thing _right now_, among other possibilities.

"Hey there Cassie," I said, signaling to Dad and a mildly irritated Nora that I'd be back in a few as I cleaned the chicken grease off my hands and moved to a handy armchair that felt a lot more comfortable than I did. "What's up?"

"Nothing bad, I can tell you that," she replied smoothly.

So it didn't seem like anything involving battles, death, or getting additional Yeerk-related crap piled on our already strained nerves and shoulders was in my Magic 8-ball's viewing portal at the moment, save for next morning's expedition. That was a _very_ good thing, and the hairs on the back of my neck lowered a bit as I felt something like relief flood through me.

"Well, that's a new one there. Seen any pigs flying the friendly skies recently?" I quipped.

I heard Cassie lightly laugh.

"No-but I did just find out that the woods are safe for hiking in again," she replied.

I understood immediately. The ape creature was dead. Finished. Several reactions rushed through me at the same time.

One was major excitement that it was dead, as well as vicarious relief that now Toph and Ax could once more use the forest in safety and peace, and that I wouldn't have to risk my neck tomorrow morning possibly fighting it. I like not having to risk my neck any more than I have to.

The second was surprise. Barring the faint, hilariously ironic chance that the ape beast had fallen to a real, genuine dangerous animal out in the woods, that meant either it had decided to go after Ax and paid the price, or more likely, that Toph had decided that for some reason she just couldn't wait until tomorrow for a grudge match and finished what she'd started. Considering that it'd come within a whisker of killing her before, that was awfully ballsy. But I had to respect that.

"So that escaped baboon's bitten the dust, huh?" I said in hopefully-vague code talk. While there was always a chance that any Controller who was tapping the local phone lines might realize what creature we were _truly_ talking about, I wasn't terribly worried.

You see, here in California, there are _lots_ of people who have exotic animals like monkeys, bears and big cats as pets because of the warm climate, and having one break loose every so often isn't uncommon at all. Sometimes when this happens, either because they're worried about lawsuits or that their animal buddy might get shot by the cops, the owners don't dare tell anyone that their exotic pet is at large. Doesn't stop any sightings and rumors though.

"That's right. I've heard that a mountain lion got it," she said conversationally.

Yep, that was Toph's doing. She must've played her cards awfully well, to be able to get close enough to grab it a second time.

"Well, I guess that means we won't have to worry about having it jumping out of the trees at us or our pals ever again."

"Yeah. That cougar sure did everyone a favor, huh?"

"I'd say. How's Zhenzhu doing, by the way?"

Translation: Did she get out of it alive?

"She's doing great. Jake and I paid her a visit with that friend of ours that's way into birds after school ended, and we had a nice talk with her."

_More like Jake stormed over to demand what the fuck was she thinking and brought you and Bird-boy along to keep things from exploding_, I thought.

"Anyway, just thought you'd like to know."

"Uh, thanks for telling me Cassie. Well, see you later."

"You too. Have a nice, free Saturday morning," she said, then hung up.

I walked back to the kitchen and put the phone back in its cradle before sitting back down to my mashed potatoes, already planning out how I'd ask the conquering heroine out for a feast of steak.

"What's this about a baboon?" Nora said in confusion.

"Oh nothing," I lied glibly. "Cassie and I were just taking a poke at Leo-you know, Drake's brother? Hey, everyone knows he's a jackass though, so he deserves it," I added as I saw her mouth start to turn into a disapproving frown.

"Reminds me of how _you_ talk about Bernard sometimes Peter," Nora said, giving my Dad a sidelong look, referring to one of his more unpopular coworkers.

"I'm a bad influence and proud of it, Mrs. Torgeson," my Dad snorted in amusement as he grinned back. "Anyway Marco, how much money do you think you'll need?"

"I'm guessing thirty, forty bucks," I replied. "Steak dinners aren't cheap, and I'm actually going to be a gentleman this time and pay for both of us."

"Well that's sure nice," Nora said approvingly.

"Looks like I did a better job of raising you than I thought," my Dad lightly grinned, giving a brief nod. "Still, you know you'll actually need to do some chores between now and then before I fork over the dough, right?"

"A sad reality of teenage life," I shrugged, sighing melodramatically.

As tends to be the case with most things involving my life as an Animorph, it didn't escape my attention how completely bizarre and insane this all was.

I was drafting up plans to take a blind girl out for dinner tomorrow evening that looked like she was Chinese, but was actually a member of an alien race that just happened to bear a striking resemblance to Asian people and could psychically manipulate dirt, stone, and metal with just her mental energy.

But yet, crazy as it might've been, it also just felt so satisfying. And right.

* * *

**_Toph_**_._

Toph's side trip to acquire morphs from her own world, courtesy of the Ellimist, had been wonderfully successful. She'd laid hands upon and taken up the genetic blueprints of a whole menagerie of beasts; crested bobcat, boar-cu-pine, boar-crocodile, giant finback lizard, giant eagle, marsupial saber-tooth, komodo rhino, baboon-cassowary, mantis shrimp-gator, giant rat, horned jaguar, snake-whale, hyena-possum, hippo-dog, ground sloth bear, and platypus bear, among numerous others.

Once the earthbender had felt she'd acquired a sufficient number of morphs from her own native planet, the Ellimist had sent her back to her cave and then left as randomly as he'd come.

She'd been much too excited to sleep of course. So naturally Toph had killed some time by morphing some of the strange-by-Earth-standards beasts she'd just acquired and then prowling around the nearby woods, taking each body for a test run as it were, gleefully imagining the reactions from the Yeerks when she morphed them in battle. She also dearly hoped Visser Butthole would be there to see it too.

But after several bouts of this trial morphing, the mental effort and strain of the process had become too draining for her to handle, and so Toph had returned to her furnished cave, shed her hyena-possum body for her natural one, then gone back to sleep.

As per usual, the dawn chorus of birds woke Toph on that Saturday morning.

She stood up and stretched, took a good drink from the metal pail, and snuffed the fire out with her earthbending before going out to relieve herself. Once that was done, she morphed Red and headed into town at a casual, seemingly aimless trot to deceive any observant Controllers. Her objective was of course, Olivia's house and the breakfast she knew the droid could and would quickly whip up for her.

Alerted by the earthbender's thought-speak greeting as Toph approached, the Chee greeted her at the back door and wasted no time in doing just that after letting Toph inside.

It wasn't long before Toph found herself working on a stack of Chinese-style pumpkin pancakes with wonderfully sweet strawberry syrup, hair hanging loose as she told the droid about last night's adventures with the Ellimist and how she'd subdued the various creatures for acquiring with her earthbending between bites.

"_Yep, I just bent out a shallow pit for the horned jaguar to fall into like the others, then compressed the dirt around her legs_," she confirmed. "_Being a cat though, she was a lot slipperier then the boar-crocodile though, and she twisted herself free right as I earth-surfed right up to her._ _Then she lunged at me almost before I could react._"

"_Did she get you? Claw you up or something like that?_" Olivia asked with a mixture of concern and suspense.

Toph lightly laughed. "_Nah, Metal-Dog Lady, she didn't. I just proved again how awesome I am by lunging at _her _myself! I grabbed her horns, those top two thicker ones I told you about, and focused to induce the trance, which stopped the cat in her tracks-though I'd like to think she actually came to her senses about trying to use the greatest earthbender in the universe as a chew toy,_" she smugly smiled, which got a laugh out of the Chee as well.

Not for the first time, the knowledge of having someone whom she could speak freely with in her native tongue warmed and pleased Toph. Apparently due to some complex little gadget made out of metal that had been inserted into his very brain, Antelope Boy was able to understand her perfectly well whenever she spoke her mother tongue, but could only reply back in thought-speak. Sunshine had also taken it upon herself recently to learn some Mandarin for the earthbender's benefit, and that was great, but the black girl only knew the most basic phrases and words. Hardly enough for a fluid conversation.

A further delight for Toph was to hear from Yzark that, according to what a couple other Chee had found out and transmitted to all their fellow droids, the corpse of the four-armed ape creature she'd killed the day before had been discovered in the wee hours of that morning by a team of human-Controllers with tracking dogs. As a result of hearing that the experimental Controller had been seemingly killed by a native predator, Visser Three had been livid. Thankfully however, he'd decided that at the very least, he was going to put his plan to bring more of the naturally rare ape predators to Earth on hold-and was even likely to suspend it indefinitely! It filled the earthbender with relief and pride.

Once breakfast was over, and she'd put her dishes into the sink to be washed, listening to the odd sound of her soles slapping against the linoleum, Olivia asked Toph if she'd like to go out and take both Simon and Cinnamon for a walk with her a bit later. Toph had no problem with that, stretching her legs.

So an hour later, having been coaxed into taking a warm shower and exchanged her leotard for an orange sweatshirt and a pair of khaki jeans, brown contacts placed over her eyes and hair tied in a ponytail, she stepped out the door as Olivia shut and locked it behind her, holding Simon's leash.

Through her sandals, she felt the jarring seismic traces of cars and trucks periodically passing by, insects walking over or through the ground, the footsteps of both dogs and others in their yards or kennels, people and kids working or playing outside, and even the hushed steps of cats as they prowled about while she walked down the sidewalk with her gliding gait.

They weren't quite at the halfway mark of their walk when suddenly, she both felt and heard an inexplicable buzzing, droning sound, originating from the Chee's left hip, which filled her with alarm as she stopped in her tracks.

"ZZZZUUUUMMMM."

"Oh Oma, there's a widow hornet nearby," she said unhappily, her body tensing. "Is it coming toward me?"

"Nah, that's just my cell phone buzzing, letting me know someone's calling," Olivia replied as Toph felt her pluck the phone from her pocket and bring it to her ear, producing an audible snap as she opened it to become longer.

"Hello?" the Chee enquired into the device as they both began to walk again. "Oh hi Marco! Yes, Zhenzhu is with me. Oh, we're just walking two of the dogs together. Yes, hold on a moment. Marco wants to speak to you," Olivia said, turning as she offered the phone to her.

A surge of eagerness and pleasure swelled within Toph as she carefully took it, experimentally holding it up to her left ear like she'd just felt the droid do.

"Uh, hey there Smart Aleck, how's it going?" she asked, keeping her voice neutral even as her cheeks became warm.

"Going great," he replied as she briefly recoiled at the sound of his disembodied voice. "For one thing, I've actually been able to sleep in for once instead of having to prepare for one of my usual...outings, with Big Jake."

So he too, knew about how she'd killed the ape beast. He seemed both relieved and faintly incredulous.

"And talking to a beautiful girl such as yourself only further helps improve my mood," he added charmingly.

Now the blush expanded to cover half her face, even as she rolled her eyes.

"Wow, you practically made me feel flattered there with that one Smart Aleck," Toph replied, her tone falsely patronizing. "A few more weeks of practicing, and you just might be able to pull it off. Might be."

"Really funny," he said dryly. "But surely you must know that I, the Magnificent Marco, have no need to practice my innate skill of being cute and charming?"

"Some might beg to differ there."

"Anyway," he went on, "to the real reason behind this call. Now, I like to make things short and simple."

"That's pretty much how I roll too."

"Um, good. Well, uh, I'm just calling to ask if you'd like to go to this steakhouse at the mall with me this evening and enjoy some nice tasty cow parts for dinner. You interested?"

The beautiful, galvanizing realization exploded through the earthbender as her sightless eyes lit up underneath the brown contacts and her face fully, furiously blushed a few moments later. She was both ecstatic and disbelieving all at once.

_Oh great Tu Gong, by Avatar Kyoshi, he's asking me _on a date_!_ her inner voice screamed. _Me!_

It wasn't the first time a guy had asked her on a date before, of course. But they'd all been opportunistic parasites who she could sense right away had been more interested in her family fortune and the associated fame instead of her as a person. There was no spark to be had with those leeches, and she'd given their offers a rejection they'd never forget anytime soon.

But Smart Aleck didn't care about those things. His interest in her was pure and sincere, and that touched her. Still, the idea certainly brought out her bashful side.

"Uh Toph? Hel-lo? You still with me?"

"Of course Smart Aleck."

"Whew! I haven't managed to scare you away after all," he joked. "So, do you want to have some steak and quality time with Don Marco? We can get dessert at Cinnabon after that," he added temptingly.

"Well, I guess I can put up with you for an evening," she replied wryly.

"Wow. You mean that?" he asked, voice both delighted and incredulous.

"Of course Smart Aleck." Saying the words was like something out of a wonderful dream to her.

There was a pause of a few seconds. Toph could just imagine Marco grinning like the Koudian Cat as he pumped his free fist in a silent "Yes!"

Toph found herself grinning too. She realized then that she was deeply flattered and pleased to have a guy actively, honestly take an interest in her, to have one ask her out for a dinner date. She'd only dreamed of such a thing ever happening to her, and the reality of it staggered the earthbender.

"You've made me one very happy tenth-grader just now, Zhenzhu," he sighed in giddy satisfaction. "This-this is too awesome! And Rachel always says I'd be lucky to get a girl just to _slap_ me," he chuckled. "Well, in your face Xena!"

She laughed. "Anyway, when should I be ready, Smart Aleck? And what are the plans to get from here to there?"

After a few moments Marco said, "Well, I'm thinking we'll get to the steak house at around seven-thirty. My dad said last night he can drive me there, and also pick you up at your place along the way, so you should probably be ready by seven."

"All right."

"Well, see you later then my outstanding dining companion," Marco finished. "And have a nice afternoon until then. Now I'm going to go call up Rachel and brag about this to her," he declared gleefully.

"See you later Smart Aleck," she smirked.

"Zai jian," he replied before "hanging up."

For a few moments, the earthbender just stood there, blindly staring at the cell phone, lips curved.

Suddenly she burst out laughing, an ecstatic, victorious sound. "Hah hah hah!"

"What?" Olivia asked, faintly amused herself as she took the odd device back. "Marco being his typically funny self again?"

Toph shook her head. "It's more than that," she grinned. "He actually just asked me out _on a date_ to go eat at the mall tonight!"

"I _knew_ that he liked me," she continued, chuckling. "I knew it! I did it! I am so awesome! Finally, I got a guy not just to fall for me, not just to pay attention, but actually offer to go out with me, even though I'm blind and only fourteen! Who's the best?! Who's the queen here?! That's right, I am!" she exulted to the universe.

"Well, well. That's great to hear," Olivia agreed happily.

For Toph Beifong, the rest of the walk with the droid and her dogs was less of a stroll and more of a hardly restrained, giddy run. Oh Oma, was the prospect of a real romance exhilarating!

Her lips curved upward as she wondered what sort of reactions her students would have if they knew right now that their hard-driving sifu was going on a date with a guy who could well end up as a future boyfriend.

Moo-chi, aka The Dark One, would most likely mutter something about how love always led to nothing but trouble, and that she should watch her step unless she wanted to end up like Renshu and Jiayi did. But hey, it was her life and happiness she was risking, not his.

Ho Tun would be pleased for her though. He'd agree that this was wonderful, give her a thumbs up, ask what this guy was like and if he could meet him some time, maybe be a little envious and/or disappointed that he didn't have a special someone of his own.

As for Penga, Toph was pretty certain that she'd just hit the roof with girlish excitement, squealing "Oh, by the spirits that's _so romantic!_" before peppering her with empty-headed questions like "Is he handsome Sifu Toph? Does he dress good? Does he have a younger brother? Can we meet him? Is he a bender too?"

The prospect of having to face the mall again that night, with its carpeted floors, jarring noises, violent, headache-inducing vibrations and unfamiliar chaos was something that the master earthbender wasn't especially looking forward to. All the same though, the idea of a fun time and a steak dinner with just Smart Aleck ensured that any amount of sensory overload or culture shock she'd experience during this second trip to the mall would be all worthwhile indeed. More than worthwhile.

* * *

**Zai jian means goodbye in Mandarin. Next chapter will be the actual date!**

**As always, I love them reviews as much as I love ginger snaps. :)**


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